Here's How Court Expansion Could Flip Control Of The Supreme Court

3 months ago

Constitutional Law Professor Kermit Roosevelt joins Forbes Senior Editor Maggie McGrath on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the possibility of court expansion in the Supreme Court.

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Transcript

00:00The other policy proposal or reform that you hear in some parts of the political system

00:07are is expanding the court, which that to me feels like the most unlikely.

00:12But what's your view?

00:13I know that's been kind of a call we've heard out of the left over the last few years, precisely

00:18because of that supermajority that you have referenced, right?

00:21So I think that is the most unlikely, although I understand why people are calling for it.

00:28So if you agree with the analysis that I was giving you before about term limits and how

00:35it would make sense for control over the Supreme Court to be determined by whether or not you

00:39win presidential elections, then you can adopt term limits and you'll get there eventually.

00:48If you follow the term limits plan, the court will come back in line with the American people

00:52in maybe 20 years because term limits wouldn't apply to the sitting justices for the composition

00:58of the court to even out.

00:59It's going to take a while.

01:01You have to somehow get rid of the over-representation of Republican justices.

01:05You have to just wait for them to retire.

01:08So if you don't want to wait 20 years, if you think the court is a current danger to

01:13American democracy, if you're really upset about some of its decisions and you think

01:17they're just beyond the pale and you want to bring it back right now to where it would

01:21have been if we'd been doing two justices per four year presidential term, then what

01:27you want to do is give the Democrats control.

01:29So that's what court expansion would do.

Here's How Court Expansion Could Flip Control Of The Supreme Court

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