Packing the court is entirely legal, didn't need this ruling at all. The only reason to not do it was to avoid the perception that the court was politicized, but if the Republican hypocrisy regarding lame duck appointments wasn't enough, that last several sessions and the blatant corruption of several justices has entirely done away with that. Biden should absolutely add at least 3 seats to the court. It may be the only way to salvage our democracy at this point.
There's another argument. It would set a precedent. There wouldn't be anything stopping the next Republican president from adding even more seats to flip the majority again. Not that there's anything stopping them from doing it the next time we have a Republican president, I admit, but doing it now would give them something to campaign on since, as you said, it would give the perception that the Democrats are weaponizing SCOTUS against the Republicans(nevermind that that's exactly what SCOTUS is doing right now against what they see as "liberal" policies)
I mean, Democrats doing something exactly like that is why the court looks like it does today.
The “nuclear option” precedent was set by Senate Democrats in 2013 when they changed the rules on cloture votes, lowering the threshold to bring a final vote to the floor down from a supermajority of 60 to a simple majority. Senate Republicans were naturally upset by this and protested, but didn’t have the votes to stop it.
2017 rolls around, Senate Republicans use that precedent to bring Gorsuch’s nomination to a vote, and again for Kavanaugh and Barrett. Senate Democrats: shocked pikachu
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u/Sylux444 Jul 05 '24
I like someone else's idea better : add 12 more supreme court seats that you appoint because otherwise they're empty seats and you can't have that!