Keck talks to PolitiFact about court packing

April 26, 2021

PolitiFact

Thomas M. Keck

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Congress

Law

Political Parties

SCOTUS

United States

PolitiFact

Thomas M. Keck

Democratic lawmakers have introduced a measure to increase the number of Supreme Court justices from nine to 13. They say this is necessary to counter "court packing" by Republicans in the past few years, but Republicans say the Democrats’ bill is itself a clear example of court packing. Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics, says a court expansion can be justified. "If it’s the case that Sen. McConnell and other Republican leaders engaged in illegitimate court packing of their own from 2016 to 2020, then from the Democrats’ perspective, an additional round of court reform is necessary to correct for those earlier rounds," he says. Read more in the PolitiFact article, "The continuing battle over 'court packing' and the Supreme Court."