Here is a fact that cannot be denied: The Repugnants have spent the last 50 years packing the Supreme Court. Since 1970 they have appointed 42 justices compared to 12 by the Democrats. Two of the last right -wing Presidents who lost the popular vote appointed five of the nine seats. If Democrats do not do something to alter the membership of the Court, one study says it will not be until 2065 that there will be a Democratic leaning majority on the nation's highest bench.
Dithering about the ethicality of expanding an already packed Supreme Court is counterproductive. If Democrats had played the same kind of judicial hardball the Repugnants did, Meritt Garland might be sitting on the bench now instead of heading a Justice Department for which he is ill-suited. Repugnants rammed anti-choice candidate Amy Barrett through in just a few days before the 2020 election, but they would not address Garland's appointment eight months before the 2016 election. Former Justice Ruth Ginsberg put career over the nation's best interests by refusing to retire from the bench when Democrats were in control of Congress. Senator Diane Finestein has returned to Washington, DC, but her prolonged absence from the Senate Judiciary Committee caused by illness has stalled Democratic efforts to put more progressives in the federal judiciary. The Democrats have been played as chumps by Repugnant realpolitik. As a result, a conservative Court has assaulted some of the most significant progressive legislation in this nation's history ranging from reproductive and voting rights to cleaner air and water.
Expanding the Court is the cleanest and quickest way to correct this dangerous imbalance. The Court has not always been composed of nine justices. Prior to Reconstruction Congress altered the size of the Court pursuant to its powers under the Constitution. During the Civil War it reached a maximum size of ten after the Judiciary Act of 1789 originally set its membership at six. Scrupulous concerns over constitutional propriety have led this country into a judicial crisis exacerbated by the lack of enforceable ethical norms for sitting justices. The Supreme Court is no longer viewed as an impartial body by the public. It is time to face this reality and correct the institution's obvious political bias embodied in Justice Clarence Thomas, spawn of a racist society.