The judiciary branch of the federal government is the only one functioning properly, despite what many say.
The executive branch has been starting wars without congressional approval, running cover for pedophiles and spying on American citizens for decades. The legislative branch has been at a stalemate for decades due to the two-party system.
For over 150 years, the Supreme Court has had nine justices. Some Democrats have been calling for adding justices, or packing the court, since former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came up with the idea in 1936.
Court-packing dangerously waters down the checks and balances of the judiciary branch. If one party breaks the long-standing tradition of keeping nine justices in an effort to gain a temporary upper hand politically, the other party will just add its own new justices when it regains power. It’s genuinely a childish concept that would somehow result in a larger, less efficient and more polarized government.
FDR ended up serving four presidential terms before the 22nd Amendment in 1951, which limited presidents to two terms. In his time as president he appointed eight Supreme Court justices, the second most in history. He was still able to reshape the court without adding justices.
While the Supreme Court has conservative and liberal blocs, the justices’ job is to interpret the Constitution the way they see it, regardless of which president they were appointed by. The executive and legislative branches have been using the judiciary as a scapegoat and pawn in their games of achieving unchecked power.
In 2016, Republicans had control of the Senate, and they blocked then-president Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, citing the fact that it was an election year, so the people should decide the direction of the court with their presidential votes.
This concept was introduced by Joe Biden in 1992. A senator at the time, he hypothetically argued that if a vacancy occurred, George H.W. Bush should wait until after the election to make a nomination, or the Senate should consider delaying confirmation. Once Republicans cited this in the Garland situation, Biden tried to deny it, but even the Washington Post acknowledged that he said it.
In President Donald Trump’s first term, he appointed three justices to the court, one of which Senate Republicans confirmed even though it was during an election year. As hypocritical as it is, anyone pretending Democrats wouldn’t have played the same political game is being purposefully naive.
In 2021, a number of congressional Democrats introduced legislation to expand the court from nine to 13 justices, and Biden set up a commission to study the court’s structure, including the number of justices. Thankfully, these efforts went nowhere. That doesn’t mean they are going to stop, though. Jasmine Crockett, a major player in the Texas Senate race, urged Democrats in August 2025 to pack the court when they regain power.
The conservative bloc of the court just proved critics like her wrong by ruling against many of Trump’s tariffs. They aren’t just doing his bidding. They’re not afraid to go against him if they feel what he’s doing is unconstitutional. Three conservatives ruled against the tariffs.
Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the liberal bloc isn’t much of a surprise. What is surprising is Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett voting to strike down a pillar of his economic plan. It’s doubtful they wanted to betray the man who gave them the opportunity of a lifetime. Their first priority is clearly upholding their interpretations of the Constitution.
The left argues that it’s OK to pack the court since the conservative bloc holds a majority, but it’s just how things worked out. If Hillary Clinton won the presidency in 2016, the liberal bloc would hold a majority. But she didn’t, so they don’t.
Democrats need to embrace common sense and drop radical ideas like packing the court.
