The Deep Wisdom of Joe Biden’s Judicial Commission
After weeks of being pressed hard on the issue of packing the federal courts to compensate for Republican efforts to turn the judiciary into a functioning arm of their party, Joe Biden finally promised an answer before the election. So, in an interview on the CBS news program 60 Minutes he said he would…establish a commission of constitutional scholars to look into it.
This was obviously not the answer a lot of progressives were hoping for. And no one is ever thrilled by the idea of a politician promising a “blue ribbon commission” when asked to take a stand on an important issue. An editorial in my hometown newspaper described Biden’s answer as a passing of the buck with “the backbone of a buttered noodle.”
But in truth Biden’s answer was a good one.
Those pushing the former vice president to come down firmly on one side or the other of the issue believe there’s a pat answer to the long Republican project of politicizing the judiciary. They’re wrong.
It is true that the Republicans under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump have done immense damage to the integrity of the federal courts. Conservative judges are compounding the problem, in particular with a mishmash of late-breaking decisions that threaten to disenfranchise a huge number of voters in the 2020…
