Is Packing the Supreme Court the Answer — Or Is there Something More Popular We Could Try Instead?

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Regardless of her politics, there’s an argument to be made that Amy Coney Barrett is simply not qualified to be on the Supreme Court. With only three years as a judge, I personally have to question whether she has seen and handled enough variety of cases.

And that is aside from the hypocrisy of “We can’t seat a justice in an election year, but can do it right in the middle of an election.” With a 6–3 conservative majority there is (and should not be) fear for the rights of thousands of Americans. American conservatism has become a monster.

The kneejerk reaction from the left has been to “pack” the Supreme Court. This would involve increasing the size of the court by 2 or 4 justices (the court needs to have an odd number to reduce the number of ties). But I was in an interesting conversation on Facebook that suggested a different strategy.

Look to the Lower Courts

A lot of people don’t think about the court system until they get embroiled in it.

The U.S. federal court system has, basically, a three tier system. (This is, of course, ignoring the state court system for simplicity). Cases go to the district court, then the circuit court, then the Supreme Court…