Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday Democrats are trying to redefine the term “court packing” in a way to evade Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden’s unwillingness to directly weigh in on the issue ahead of November elections.
“A prominent philosopher wrote that when leaders abuse language, it is because they seek to abuse power,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Anyone who studied U.S. history in high school knows that ’court-packing’ has a clear definition: A partisan attempt to expand the Supreme Court beyond nine seats, so new justices can be added despite the court having no vacancies.”
His comment comes after Democrats have tried to claim Senate Republicans are moving to pack the court with a 6-3 conservative majority by confirming Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“The only court packing going on right now is going on with Republicans. … It’s not constitutional what they’re doing,” Mr. Biden said over the weekend.
He had avoided answering if he supports calls by progressives in his party to add more justices to the high court — up to 15 — to counter the conservative bent. On Monday after weeks of speculation, he signaled he is “not a fan” of court packing.
Mr. McConnell, though, said it is not “court packing” to fill judicial vacancies — that’s the Senate’s job to vote on judicial nominees.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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