A win-win plan to de-politicize the Supreme Court

Americans are not particularly interested in how many justices sit on the Supreme Court. They are, however, deeply interested in whether the court is fair. And right now, trust in the court is quickly eroding — not because of any single ruling, but because of a brewing fear that the institution itself is becoming a prize to be seized rather than a referee to be trusted. 

That fear is well-founded.  

Democrats have repeatedly introduced legislation to expand the court from nine to 13 or even 15 seats, driven by frustration with a conservative supermajority they consider illegitimately obtained. Republicans, for their part, have watched those bills — and Democratic threats to eliminate the filibuster to pass them — and concluded they may need to act preemptively.  

The filibuster, it should be noted, has already been eroded by both parties in the service of judicial appointments. What remains of it may not survive this cycle. Each side’s threats justify the other’s. The escalation has its own logic. The end of that logic is a court with 17 or 20 or 30 justices, staffed largely by whoever won the last election, its independence in shreds. 

As someone not particularly enamored with the current government, I’ll say out loud what few want to hear: Republicans don’t need to write their own court-packing legislation. Democrats already did it for them. 

The Judiciary Act — introduced by progressive Democrats in 2021, 2023 and again in 2024 — would expand the court and give the sitting president the authority to fill the new seats immediately. With a Republican in the White House and a Republican-controlled Senate,........

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