Vice President Kamala Harris’s stance on expanding the Supreme Court, a controversial issue often referred to as “court packing,” has come under renewed scrutiny following her administration’s recent proposal for a sweeping Supreme Court overhaul. While Harris has previously expressed openness to adding more justices to the court, she has not commented on the matter since launching her 2024 presidential bid.
During her 2019 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris made it clear that she was open to expanding the Supreme Court. In a town hall event in New Hampshire, she stated, “I’m open to this conversation about increasing the number of people on the United States Supreme Court.” She also told the New York Times and Politico that she was open to “everything being on the table” to restore confidence in the Supreme Court, including adding seats.
However, Harris’s campaign did not provide comment to Fox News Digital when asked whether she still supports court packing. This silence, coupled with the administration’s recent proposal for a Supreme Court overhaul, has sparked speculation about her potential future actions on the issue.
The Biden-Harris administration’s proposed overhaul includes a number of changes, including term limits for Supreme Court justices, an enforceable ethics code, and an amendment to overturn the Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. Critics argue that the administration’s proposal for term limits, which would see a new justice appointed every two years, effectively amounts to court packing, albeit in a more subtle way.
Former Trump administration lawyer Mark Paoletta, who worked on the confirmation efforts for Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch, claims that the administration’s proposal “stealthily” includes a form of court packing under the guise of term limits. He argues that the plan “disqualifies the senior-most Justices from active service,” potentially targeting Justices Thomas, Roberts, and Alito.
Paoletta further points to statements made by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who said that Harris’s campaign told him his own court-packing legislation is “precisely aligned with what we are talking about.” Whitehouse’s legislation outlines a similar structure to the administration’s proposal, with appointments of justices every two years and a system where only the most recently appointed nine justices would handle appellate jurisdiction cases.
These statements suggest that Harris’s administration may be considering a more drastic approach to court packing than the term limit proposal initially suggests. The administration’s silence on the issue and Harris’s past statements leave many questioning whether she remains open to court packing and what steps, if any, she will take on this controversial matter in the future.
