A Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday that he was open to packing the Supreme Court with more justices if Joe Biden is elected president.
Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” if his mind is open to expanding the number of judges into the court to counterbalance conservative Amy Coney Barrett if she gets confirmed, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said “yes.”
He compared his position to his party’s presidential nominee, who has refused to be drawn on the issue — with Biden only saying he will announce it before the election.
“Like Joe Biden, I’m not a fan of expanding the court, but we have a few weeks here to see whether there are four Republicans who will step back from this precipice,” Coons told host Jake Tapper.
“It is the Republican majority that’s responsible for racing forward with this extreme, unqualified nominee — unqualified because of her extreme judicial philosophy,” he claimed of Barrett.
He insisted President Trump’s pick was only there to “overturn the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic.”
Republicans are “doing this to get someone on the court just in time, a week after the election, to take away critical health care protections from a majority of Americans,” Coons said.
“And then if we happen to be in the fact pattern where we have a President Biden who will have to look at what the right steps are to rebalance our federal judiciary.”
Asked to confirm that meant he was still open to adding more justices, he gave a firm “Yes.”
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