Former Biden Transportation Secretary and Democrat presidential candidate in 2020, Pete Buttigieg is ramping up his renewed effort on pushing “reform” of the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently while appearing in an interview on Fox News’ America Reports on Friday. But it wasn’t just Democrats’ favorite solution—court packing—that’s on his agenda.
Notice how he tries to push the idea that the current Supreme Court is corrupt, claiming “the legitimacy of the Supreme Court is, I believe, the lowest it’s ever been in the eyes of the American people.”
He adds, “It’s come to feel like a nakedly partisan institution.”
Pretty crafty, but biased. Then he starts with his first of three proposed changes: putting term limits in place.
“At a minimum, term limits so that, for each presidential term, you know how many Supreme Court appointments are going to go with it,” he says.
His second idea: raising the number of Supreme Court justices (AKA court packing).
“I also think we would be better off with a court that has something like 13 justices that would match the number of districts that we have in the federal system,” he says.
Lastly, he expresses support for a balanced bench proposal being floated by progressives.
The balanced bench system would see the court expanded to 15 justices. Ten would be appointed through the traditional presidential nomination and Senate confirmation process, split evenly between Democratic- and Republican-appointed members over time.
Those 10 justices would then unanimously select an additional five consensus justices, who would be expected to have broader support across ideological lines.
Buttigieg warns that if the kinds of reforms he and other Dems are suggesting aren’t put in place, it would lead to “catastrophe.”
It comes just about two weeks after he told an Iowa Democrat Party audience he wants the Electoral College to be abolished and U.S. Supreme Court justices to be held accountable.
Hellbound and Down 