Then-Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris did not rule out potentially packing the Supreme Court in 2019 when she sought the party’s nod to face then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The now-vice president and Democratic nominee for president in 2024 reiterated several times during her previous campaign that she wasn’t opposed to a Supreme Court expansion, which would theoretically allow liberal justices to take on a majority role through new appointments.
“I’m open to this conversation about increasing the number of people on the United States Supreme Court,” Harris told voters in Nashua, New Hampshire, after a question was posed to her about adding up to four seats to the high court, Bloomberg reported at the time.
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Kamala Harris previously claimed to be open to packing the Supreme Court. (Reuters)
Her interest in court-packing was not limited to a one-off remark. Harris made it clear, reiterating during her primary campaign in 2019 to both the New York Times and Politico that she was open-minded when it came to adding more seats to the court.
Harris claimed to Politico at the time that “everything is on the table” to restore confidence in the Supreme Court, including court-packing.
She was asked by The New York Times whether she wished to elaborate on being “open” to court-packing, to which she declined.
“I’m just open to it,” she said.
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The U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Judicial Branch of government. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
Harris’ campaign did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. It was asked whether Harris was still open to court-packing.
Last month, Biden and Harris’ administration rolled out a slate of policies to overhaul the Supreme Court. In their proposal, they called for term limits for Supreme Court justices, who currently serve lifetime appointments, an enforceable ethics code for justices, and an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the high court’s ruling that former presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office.
The overhaul also included a form of packing the court, according to the analysis of former Trump administration lawyer Mark Paoletta. Stealthily included under the term limit proposal, Biden and Harris’ plan outlines a system in which the president appoints a new Supreme Court justice “every two years to spend eighteen years in active service on the Supreme Court.”
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Biden and Harris’ administration recently revealed a proposed Supreme Court overhaul. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Even though Joe Biden caved to radicals and recently endorsed court packing, Harris is even further to the left of him on this thoroughly discredited idea,” Paoletta said in a statement to Fox News Digital. He notably worked on the confirmation efforts for Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Harris’ past statements and refusal to comment further on the subject suggest that her administration could undertake not only the Supreme Court expansion apparently outlined in the administration’s desired overhaul, but an even more drastic version.
Paoletta pointed to a recent claim from Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who said Harris’ campaign told him his Supreme Court legislation is “precisely aligned with what we are talking about,” the Dispatch reported.
“According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse—who is the single most malignant figure in America trying to undermine the independence of the Supreme Court—Harris supports his court-packing legislation that would disqualify the senior-most Justices from active service, which just so happen to be Justice Thomas, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justice Alito,” Paoletta explained.
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Democrats have slammed the Court’s conservative majority. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
He claimed Whitehouse’s plans, which Harris has purportedly expressed agreement with, are “far more nefarious” than the “court packing scheme” under former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
As Paoletta noted, legislation authored by Whitehouse laid out a similar structure to Biden and Harris’ latest proposal, outlining appointments of justices every two years. Under the bill, only the most recently appointed nine justices would oversee appellate jurisdiction cases. It further states that “all” justices are to preside over original jurisdiction cases, without specifying a number.
Prior to the latest overhaul proposal, Biden had held off supporting packing the court, despite calls from other Democrats. He once warned that Democrats would “live to rue” taking such action.
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Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.
Follow Julia’s reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to Julia.Johnson@fox.com.
