Joe Biden Says He'll Study Court Packing, Argues System Is 'Getting Out Of Whack'

Questions of whether Biden would support court-packing have emerged since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Sept. 18.
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won’t rule out studying the addition of members to the U.S. Supreme Court as part of a commission he plans to name to look at court reforms if he’s elected.

During an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” recorded Monday but not yet aired, Biden was asked by anchor Norah O’Donnell if the commission would study whether to pack the court. Biden says the commission’s charge would “go well beyond packing,” arguing the court system is “getting out of whack.”

“It is a live ball. We’re going to have to do that,” he said. “And you’re going to find there’s a lot of conservative Constitutional scholars who are saying that as well.”

“The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football, whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want. Presidents come and go. Supreme Court justices stay for generations,” he added.

Biden said last week he was “not a fan” of the idea of adding justices to the court to balance it ideologically. He said he would answer the question of whether he planned to support it before the final presidential debate, scheduled for Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee.

Questions of whether Biden would support court-packing have emerged since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Sept. 18 and the Republican-controlled Senate’s move forward with Judiciary Committee hearings on President Donald Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, before the Nov. 3 election.

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