Nearly half of all Americans oppose Democrats’ attempts to pack the Supreme Court, according to a new poll.
Forty-six percent of Americans believe that the Supreme Court should continue to have only nine justices, according to a Morning Consult poll of 2,000 registered voters. The poll, conducted from April 16-19, has a margin of error of 2%.
Proposed Supreme Court Expansion Remains Unpopular https://t.co/RAawFDXkql via @cameron_easley pic.twitter.com/IE6vKmTvKn
— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) April 21, 2021
Only 26% of Americans support packing the Supreme Court, while 28% do not have an opinion on the move. Those numbers remain nearly constant from October 2020, when Morning Consult found that 45% of Americans opposed court-packing, 26% supported it, and 29% had no opinion.
Forty-three percent of Democrats support court-packing, compared to 17% of independents and only 9% of Republicans.
Calls for court-packing from liberal activists and some congressional Democrats have grown louder after then-President Donald Trump nominated, and the Senate confirmed, Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg publicly opposed court-packing, as does Justice Stephen Breyer. (RELATED: Liberal Activists Pressure Justice Breyer To Retire Because He’s Against Court-Packing)
Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey introduced a bill April 15 that would increase the size of the Supreme Court from nine to thirteen justices.
“Some people will say we’re packing the court. We’re not packing it, we’re unpacking it,” Nadler said when announcing the proposal, despite the fact that many Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have described the practice of adding new justices to the Court for partisan advantage as packing.
Despite saying that Democrats would “live to rue the day” they packed the Supreme Court during the 2020 primaries, Biden walked back his opposition during the general election. He established a commission to explore expanding the court in April.
Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi both said that Congress should wait for the commission to issue a recommendation before Congress considers court-packing or other legislation.