The factually challenged syndicated columnist Jay Ambrose (“Some things to scream about,” Oct. 27) is at it again, claiming the Democrats might attempt to pack the Supreme Court and make it into “a political plaything.”
As Mr. Ambrose certainly knows, that train has already left the station. Mitch McConnell made the Supreme Court a political plaything and a political tool when he refused to act on the nomination of Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court. McConnell denied Garland a hearing, refusing to allow his Republican colleagues even to meet with the nominee, almost eight months before the 2016 election. Their hypocrisy became clear when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died only a month and a half before the next election and her replacement was rammed through the Senate at warp speed. The Republican Senate has therefore already effectively packed the Supreme Court.
Now, as Mitch McConnell has repeatedly (and correctly) emphasized, this is all within the rules. So, should Democrats choose to increase the size of the Supreme Court, they’ll not be “making the court a political plaything”; they’ll be following the cues of Majority Leader McConnell.
Mr. Ambrose seems to think it’s only “making the court a political plaything and just maybe a political tool” if Democrats do it.
