No, the Democrats Won’t Pack the Court

For many progressive opinion-makers, the only way to save the Supreme Court is to destroy it.

They believe the best response to the Republican-held Senate confirming a Trump nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court is to pack the Court if Democrats win in November. Holding out the court-packing threat, they argue, also might give Republicans second thoughts about filling the vacancy.
 
As a medium-term strategy, court-packing is a woefully misconceived fantasy, and as a tactic in the fight over filling RBG’s seat, it is already an abject failure. It is a lesson in what happens when you let your outrage do your thinking for you.
 
For the Democrats, court-packing would be a murder-suicide. It would end the Supreme Court as we know it, and almost certainly bring a swift and decisive end to Democratic congressional majorities. There’s a reason Republicans aren’t taking the threat seriously in their calculations.