Former AG Suggests Adding Justices to SCOTUS to Offset Trump Appointees

The fight over Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court’s bench has already begun to turn ugly, hastened by the short period of time between now and the 2020 election.

President Donald Trump and his surrogates in the Senate are suggesting that the replacement be made immediately, possibly fearing that his chances in the election aren’t quite as sturdy as some have expressed.

The Democrats are outraged at this, however, especially after Republicans summarily blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland back in 2016, stating that an election year was no time to make such moves.

But Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are hellbent on pushing a nomination through, even if it means further alienating the left side of the aisle.  This has spurred a number of prominent Democrats to lash out against the process, or suggest ways of nullifying the coming conservative slant on the bench.

During a recent interview on MSNBC, former Attorney General Eric Holder went so far as to suggest that the Democrats could add additional justices to the court in order to offset the work done by President Trump.

“You would put in place — if this is allowed to happen, a 6-3 court,” he said. “And with all the issues you have talked about, you would have a conservative majority — or illegitimate conservative majority on the court ruling on the matters that will affect the nation for generations to come. One of the realities is if Merrick Garland had been confirmed, as he should have been, there would have been a progressive majority for the past three years. And think what about that meant. So I think if, if in fact, they are successful in placing a justice on the court, I think that what Democrats have to do, assuming that Biden is president and there is a Senate majority for the Democrats, we need to think about court reform. And at a minimum, as part of that reform package, I think additional justices need to be placed on the Supreme Court.”

This controversial concept has been floated before, but often from the fringes of the Democratic Party.  Holder is one of the most mainstream Democrats to suggest such a thing, signaling a new era of “resistance” in 2020.