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Court packing

 There's been a lot of debate about packing the Supreme Court.  Most Americans are against it, and according to a recent poll, 51% of Americans want ACB confirmed. That said, here's an interesting essay from Charles Fried about why Biden should do it if SCOTUS goes too far.  It ends this way:

But before going forth on any enlargement plan, a Biden administration would do well to see if the Supreme Court might not heed the lesson of history. Consider the well-known episode indelibly judged as President Franklin Roosevelt?s ?failed? court packing plan. Mr. Roosevelt waited to propose his ?Judicial Procedures Reform? legislation until 1937, after his first four years in office during which the reactionary Supreme Court majority relentlessly obstructed desperately needed experiments to combat the Great Depression.

President Roosevelt?s move is viewed as a rare failure by a master politician. But was it? Immediately after his proposal was unveiled, the court ruled 5 to 4 that the Wagner Act, restructuring American labor law and relations, was constitutional, and a spate of pro-New Deal decisions followed. The very threat of court packing and the passage of time made this ?nuclear option? unnecessary.

Let?s see whether the current Supreme Court majority overplays its hand. If it does, then Mr. Biden?s nuclear option might not only be necessary but it will be seen to be necessary.

In local news, if you are looking for Chief Judge Moore's Order postponing jury trials until April 2021, here ya go.

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on October 21, 2020 (boomark / email).