Steube Cosponsors Resolution to Combat the Liberal Tactic to “Pack the Courts”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Greg Steube (R-Fla.) cosponsored U.S. Representative Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) resolution, H.Res.1138, to oppose efforts from House Democrats to “pack the courts” by adding more Justices to the Supreme Court.
“Time after time, Democrats have tried to break the rules, disregard the Constitution and ignore the will of the American people to solidify their power and promote liberal judicial activism,” Steube said. “In their most recent stunt, they have decided to threaten the future of our judicial system if President Trump and the Senate fulfill their Constitutional responsibility to nominate and confirm a Justice to fill the Supreme Court’s vacancy.”
Packing the court has been a strategy recently endorsed by several prominent Democrats in Congress and would include increasing the number of Justices on the bench to dilute the power of its current Justices.
Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution explicitly states that the President shall nominate and appoint, with Advice and Consent of the Senate, Supreme Court Justices.
Fifteen times throughout the course of U.S. history, a sitting President nominated a Justice for Supreme Court during a presidential election year. Eight of those times, voters had chosen a Senate majority of the same party as the President, and seven of those nominations were confirmed.
Expanding the Supreme Court purely for political advantage threatens the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. The resolution determines that “any attempt to increase the number of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States or ‘pack the court’ would undermine our democratic institutions and destroy the credibility of our Nation’s highest Court.”
The full text of the resolution can be found here.
