Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Claims Kamala Harris Backs Court-Packing Plan

Sheldon Whitehouse, a senator from Rhode Island, said Vice President Kamalah Harris would be in favor of a Supreme Court packing bill he had been pushing if Kamalah Harris were to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Whitehouse took part in a panel discussion with Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, during the Democratic National Convention. They discussed a bill for “Supreme Court Reform” that would pass with a simple majority, if Democrats won the House, Senate, and White House. The bill would limit the tenure of the Supreme Court to 18 years, effectively removing Justices Clarence Thomas and John Roberts. It also established ethics and recusal regulations. According to the Dispatch, this bill would be part of “an omnibus bill that would create a national abortion right and other top Democratic priority,”

Whitehouse, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee for Courts, introduced a bill in the last year that would have created the same 18-year limit on terms and the biennial presidential appointments pattern Biden suggested. Only nine of the most recently appointed justices could vote on almost all important cases. If the bill was passed tomorrow, the winner of the 2020 presidential election would have the opportunity to replace Justice Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Whitehouse stated:

We don’t want the Republicans to be able to filibuster this bill multiple times. The bill that overcomes the filibuster is almost certain to include permanent voting rights and reproductive rights. It will also eliminate corrupt billionaire dark money, as well as reform the Supreme Court. You’ll have a lot of support behind a bill that moves.

Whitehouse’s declaration came after President Joe Biden, and Harris, called for a term limit of 18 years on Supreme Court Justices. Whitehouse told the Dispatch that Harris would back his legislation. Republicans and some Democrats had said it was unconstitutional.

He told the outlet that “they have not gone as far as to endorse your bill. They have stated that your bills are exactly aligned with our discussion.”

Whitehouse said, “Everything we do is subject to the will and input of the Senate, the House, and the President.” The point is to make it appear less as if it was an immediate target” for justices.

Republicans and some Democrats have condemned the bill. Adam White, who was appointed by Biden to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court as a legal scholar from the American Enterprise Institute in July, said that any legislation “purporting to strip justices of their duties” would be unconstitutional.