Poll: 72 Percent of Independents Oppose Packing Supreme Court

Seated from left: Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief
ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Mason Dixon Polling and Strategy released a poll indicating 72 percent of independents oppose packing the Supreme Court.

The poll asked, “Do you feel President Joe Biden should or should not back a plan proposed by Congressional Democrats to increase the number of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States from nine members to thirteen members?”

Thirty-three percent of Democrats said no, 95 percent of Republicans said no, and 72 percent of independents said no.

Seventy-eight percent of independents also said they were familiar with the issue of “court-packing.”

Mason Dixon said, “A total of 1,100 registered voters were interviewed nationwide by telephone” from April 15 through April 19, 2021. The margin for error is no more than ±3 percentage points.

Democrats admitted during a press conference on April 15 that the radical legislation to pack the Supreme Court is for political reasons. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said legislation to pack the Supreme Court from 9 justices to 13 is necessary because Republicans “broke” the Court through legitimate appointments.

“Make no mistake about it, the Court is broken because Leader Mitch McConnell and his Senate Republican colleagues and Donald Trump broke it,” Markey stated.

During the Democrats’ announcement, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said, “We’re not packing the Supreme Court. We’re unpacking it.” He added, “It’s a nice number” and stated that “Sen. McConnell and Republicans packed the court over the last couple of years as Sen. Markey outlined.”

Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), who was also at the press conference, said during Thursday’s legislative announcement that Americans could not have “nice things” without packing the Supreme Court.

While Congress has expanded the federal courts based on a caseload in line with the Constitution, “some contend that expanding the Court with the intent to shape the Court’s composition and obtain more favorable case outcomes [for the president] may raise constitutional questions,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

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