Justice Stephen Breyer needs to get with the program. At least that’s what many on the left think after last week. In remarks made for Harvard Law School, the Supreme Court justice threw cold water on progressives’ desire to expand (i.e. pack) the court. His remarks gave several reasons against it, saying he wished to get those favoring such measures to “think long and hard before embodying those changes in law.” Adding to his transgression was timing; these critiques came out the same week that President Joe Biden took a small step toward court expansion, establishing a commission to study it among other proposals for judicial reform.
Many progressives set a high priority on adding justices to the nation’s highest bench. Packing the court became popular on the political left in reaction to President Trump’s three SCOTUS appointments. It grew alongside progressives’ frustration, outrage, and fear that attended each one: Frustration at what they considered a stolen seat, held open by Mitch McConnell and given to Neil Gorsuch; outrage about Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged (but unproven) deeds as a teenager; fear as the additions of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett seemed to shift the court’s decades-long balance against the Left.
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