The most radical Democratic plan to fix the Supreme Court yet

What if we have to destroy the judiciary in order to save democracy?

At a campaign stop in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer embraced a radical proposal to counter Republican domination of the Supreme Court — court-packing.

After Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, stripping Republicans of their Supreme Court majority in the process, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promptly announced that he would not allow anyone President Obama nominated to fill this vacancy to be confirmed. After President Trump won the 2016 election, Republicans confirmed Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy left open by Scalia’s death. Gorsuch is now one of the most conservative justices on the Court.

Republicans claimed that, in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s words, “it’s been standard practice over the last 80 years to not confirm Supreme Court nominees during a presidential election year,” but this claim appears to be entirely made up. At least 14 past justices were confirmed in a presidential election year — the most recent was Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988.

In a video posted on Wednesday, Steyer says that he is “for” expanding the Court, arguing that Republicans “have been cheating.”

“When I think about the Supreme Court,” Steyer told a voter who asked about court expansion, “let us remember why we have the Supreme Court we have.” The answer, according to Steyer, is that “Mitch McConnell refused to allow President Obama’s choice to ever be brought up” for a hearing and a confirmation vote.

At a campaign stop in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer embraced a radical proposal to counter Republican domination of the Supreme Court — court-packing.