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The Biden administration is moving forward with the creation of a bipartisan commission to study reforms to the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.
The commission will be housed under the purview of the White House Counsel’s office and filled out with the behind-the-scenes help of the Biden campaign’s lawyer Bob Bauer, who will co-chair the commission. Its specific mandate is still being decided. But, in a signal that the commission is indeed moving ahead, some members have already been selected, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.
Fredrickson has hinted that she is intellectually supportive of ideas like court expansion. In 2019, she said in an interview with Eric Lesh, the executive director of the LGBT Bar Association and Foundation of Greater New York: “I often point out to people who aren't lawyers that the Supreme Court is not defined as ‘nine person body’ in the Constitution, and it has changed size many times.”
Under intense pressure to consider reforms to the Supreme Court’s composition — including court expansion — Biden performed a classic Washington, D.C., punt. He announced in October that if he was elected, he would form such a commission to study structural changes. But Biden also conceded he is “not a fan of court packing.”
Aaron Belkin, the director of Take Back the Court, a progressive group advocating for adding seats to the Supreme Court. “The entire agenda of what needs to get done is in jeopardy thanks to stolen federal courts.”
“We know,” he added, “that court expansion is the only strategy to allow the administration to solve the problems facing the country.”
any major structural reform would still be a heavy lift, as several Democratic senators have signaled their opposition to such measures.