Voters oppose adding justices to the Supreme Court by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a new Morning Consult poll published Wednesday.
About 26% of voters thought Congress should pass a law allowing more than nine justices to serve on the high court, while 46% of those surveyed opposed a court-packing plan.
The numbers were similar to a poll taken in October when Republicans confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, former President Trump’s appointee, to a seat previously held by the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Progressive Democrats recently introduced legislation to add four new seats to the bench, bringing the number of justices from nine to 13.
The bill would allow President Biden to add liberal justices to the court, bringing the balance to a 7-6 Democratic majority from the current 6-3 conservative majority.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, quickly put the brakes on the legislation, saying she wanted to see what Mr. Biden’s commission’s report has to say on court packing. Mr. Biden formed a commission to study the idea, along with other changes to the high court, earlier this month.
The survey was taken from April 16 through April 19 with 2,000 people. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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