by First Liberty Institute • 7 min read
After First Liberty launched our national effort to stop the radical overthrow of the judiciary, more than 60,000 American patriots and national allies stepped up together to defend the priceless heritage of America’s Supreme Court and judicial system, including:
But even as a growing majority of Americans reject the Left’s court-packing plot, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are not getting the memo.
Recently, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and several of his colleagues introduced the District Court Judgeships Act of 2021, a bill creating 203 additional federal district court judgeships.
The text of the bill currently states these extra judicial seats would not take effect until 2025, but keep in mind that the effective date could be changed. And whether it goes into effect sooner or later, 200+ vacancies would give tremendous power to the majority party and whoever the President is.
Additionally, let’s recall this isn’t the only legislative proposal to pack the courts. Earlier this year, House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Jerry Nadler (D-NY), kicked off the court-packing coup attempt by introducing a bill that would add four (4) seats to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Packing the U.S. Supreme Court with a slew of liberal, activist justices is a serious threat to the integrity of our judiciary. And this most recent bill to balloon the size of the district courts will cause many Americans to ask: Isn’t this just another brazen attempt by one party to grab more political power?
200 New Judges: A Threat to More Than 200 Years of Judicial Independence
Progressives often base their outcry for so-called court “reform” by painting a caricature of a Supreme Court that’s broken and divided along partisan lines. But the facts and statistics show the opposite.
A review of the most recent U.S. Supreme Court term shows that the justices decided forty-three percent (43%) of its cases unanimously—consistent with the average of forty-seven (47%) over the past decade.
Additionally, Americans regularly consider the Supreme Court (and the judiciary in general) to be a reliable bulwark against threats to their liberty and fundamental rights. In fact, Gallup polling reports that more than two-thirds of Americans (67%) have the most trust in the judiciary of all three branches of the federal government.
Below are multiple other metrics that demonstrate Americans’ respect for the judiciary’s priceless heritage and its importance in the Constitution as a safeguard of our civil liberties:
Packing the federal courts with 200 extra seats is a threat to a longstanding legacy, over 200 years of judicial independence and the rule of law. It would destroy a system of justice that’s stood for centuries to preserve the freedoms and God-given rights of Americans.
A Top-to-Bottom Coup
Earlier this year, First Liberty warned about an imminent, top-to-bottom plot to rig the federal judiciary for political gain. Today, it appears that what we foreshadowed is turning into reality.
And it’s no coincidence that Democrats want to stack 203 new federal judges while they control the presidency and have a narrow majority in the U.S. Senate.
Why would adding over 200 judges benefit the interests of the party currently in power?
Presently, there are slightly more than 375 Democrat-appointed and approximately 400 Republican-appointed judges in the federal judiciary. But with 203 new judgeships, plus filling all current vacancies (about 75), President Biden and his party could be in a position to:
As the numbers stand right now, President Biden’s impact on the judiciary would be far less than that of his predecessor, who set records by confirming over 230 judges.
Even if all current vacancies were to be filled, it would only be about one-third (33%) of the total number confirmed under President Trump. It’s doubtful the far Left would be quelled by a president who delivered only a third of the impact of the previous administration.
The proposal to add 200 new judgeships opens the possibility of giving President Biden the margins and edge he needs to surpass the record of his predecessor—more than two and a half times the number of vacancies to fill and possibly install nearly thirty percent (30%) of judges on the federal judiciary.
Right now, we urge everyone who cares about the integrity of America’s judiciary to join First Liberty in exposing court-packing for what it is: corrupt power grab with destructive consequences. Packing 200 lower court judges and four (4) Supreme Court justices will only add up to one thing: tyranny and the loss of our constitutional republic.
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