Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. of California. The question of whether Kamala Harris should win the November election court-packing is confusing, but in 1983 Biden will clarify the issue and call it a “bone of contention.”
Biden, a U.S. senator at the time in Delaware, addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 1983 during a hearing on U.S. civil rights. The commission commented on the nomination. At the time, Republican President Ronald Reagan was embroiled in controversy over an attempt to replace three members of the commission.
Biden argued at the time that, although it was within the president’s prerogative to do so, there was a risk of damaging the commission’s credibility. He compared it to the failed attempts to expand the Supreme Court in 1967 by six judges of President Franklin D. Roosevelt – in other words, pack the court.
“President Roosevelt clearly had the authority to send a court-packed proposal to the United States Senate and the United States Congress. It was entirely within his right to do so. He violated any law. That was legally correct, “Biden, 40, told the committee. “But it was a shaky idea. It was a terrible, terrible mistake to make. And he put into question, if for a whole decade, in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, in this country, the independence of a very important institution. ”
The question of court-packing has arisen in recent weeks amid the nomination of Judge Amy Connie Barrett to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump. Democrats have argued that the next Supreme Court judge should decide by the winner of the November election, and Barrett’s confirmation before the court – so close to the election, no less – would unduly cement an a – 3 con majority on the court.
Trump campaigner Harris says court ‘runs bus’ on packing
Just three weeks before the election, Republicans raised the issue as a last-ditch argument from voters that the Biden administration would maintain standards and establish liberals on the Supreme Court expansion.
Faced with the pressure to adopt an attitude during the campaign run by Phoenix on Thursday, Biden said the country would know my position on court-packing when the election is over.
Biden again ignored the question of court packing during a campaign stop in Erie, Paris, on Saturday – telling reporters that Republican efforts to fill a vacant seat in the Supreme Court before election day should be focused.
“Look, the only court packing that is currently going on. Republicans are now going to pack up in court, “Biden argued.” What they are doing is unconstitutional.
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Both Biden and Harris have said the Senate should wait until after the election to fill the seat. Biden promises to choose the first black woman justice if given the chance. But he and Harris are bringing pain to avoid talking about their vision for the future of the Supreme Court.
The Associated Press contributes to this report.
