The conservative Judicial Crisis Network launched a $1 million ad campaign slamming Democrats’ court-packing plan as a “bonehead idea,” using President Biden’s words from the past against him.
The 30-second ad released Thursday accuses the president of flip-flopping on court packing after liberal groups spent $145 million to get him elected. Mr. Biden opposed court packing when he was in the Senate and called it a “bonehead idea” from the Judiciary Committee dais in 1983. Now he says he’s open to the idea.
“For decades, Joe Biden stood firmly against court packing. But now the left-wing, dark-money groups who elected him and Senate Democrats are demanding it, and Biden is changing his tune,” said Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network.
The ad was announced a day after Democrats on Capitol Hill said they plan to introduce legislation to expand the high court from nine justices to 13, which would give Mr. Biden four seats to fill with liberal justices.
Mr. Biden launched a commission last week, created through an executive order, which consists of 36 members and will examine “the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court; the membership and size of the Court; and the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices,” according to the White House.
The committee will issue a report 180 days after its first public meeting, which has not yet been announced. Progressives have increased calls to add justices to the bench in hopes that a Democratic president would overturn the 6-3 majority of Republican-appointed justices into a 7-6 Democratic edge.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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