President Trump declared Tuesday that he’ll never allow Democrats to add seats to the Supreme Court as long as he’s president.
“I wouldn’t entertain that,” Mr. Trump said at a White House news conference. “I can guarantee it won’t happen for six years. We have no interest in that whatsoever.”
Some Democratic presidential hopefuls such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala D. Harris of California, and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, have raised the possibility of adding as many as six seats to the nine-seat court, which currently has a conservative majority.
Mr. Trump said the only reason Democrats are pushing the idea is that “they want to try to catch up.”
“If they can’t catch up through the ballot box by winning an election, they want to try to do it a different way,” Mr. Trump said.
As long as the GOP holds a majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely a Democratic president could add more justices. It would take an act of Congress to change the number on the high court.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to pack the court with new judgeships in 1937 after watching the high court deal setbacks to his New Deal initiatives.
That legislation was unpopular with the public and ultimately stalled.
• Alex Swoyer contributed to this story.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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