Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Trump
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

By Theresa Inacker

In recent days, we have seen both Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris dodge questions about “court-packing.” Biden finally said he “isn’t a fan of it”, but never said he would actually decline to do it if elected.

This is particularly troublesome as the Second Amendment hangs in the balance and the Supreme Court has declined to hear, let alone decide, a multitude of critically important Second Amendment cases for the past decade since the seminal Heller decision.

Justice Clarence Thomas recently commented on the Court’s failure to get involved in these critical cases in a New Jersey case, lamenting the results in Rogers v. Grewal.

You probably know that the U.S. Supreme Court currently seats nine Justices in total. That number isn’t specified in the Constitution and the Court has a history of expansion. Adding seats on the Court isn’t necessarily an abuse of Constitutional power. However, packing the Court to ensure particular political outcomes would do clear damage to the balance between the branches of government, in direct violation of the spirit and purpose of the Constitutional concept of separation of powers.

Congress has the authority to change the number of seats on the Court by passing an act which would then be signed into law by the President. Found in Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution, and with a broad direction to Congress to establish the court system, it states

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.

The number of Justices on the Court has changed over the years, looking something like a roller coaster ride from the founding until finally reaching stability at nine Justices in 1869.

1789: 6 Justices
1801: 5 Justices
1801: 6 Justices
1807: 7 Justices
1837: 9 Justices
1863: 10 Justices
1866:  7 Justices
1869:  9 Justices

This, despite attempts by Franklin Roosevelt in 1937 to pack the Court with political cronies in order to further his political agenda. It should be noted that the idea was very unpopular at the time.

Washington Post court packing supreme court
Courtesy Washington Post

Democrats either misunderstand the role of the judiciary or have zero conscience about abusing it to further their agenda. Legislative attempts to alter another branch of government is the essence of being willing to do anything to win and expand their power. The result would be the end of checks and balances and, ultimately, totalitarianism.

For decades now, some in the third branch of government have legislated from the bench, resulting in a loss of Second Amendment rights for people in states like New Jersey, Maryland and California. Lower courts have routinely failed to apply and uphold the Court’s Heller decision and the Court, so far, has done little about it.

For more on this decade-long judicial abdication, read Equal Justice Under Law? Not If You Want to Exercise Your Second Amendment Rights.

While Congress has the power to shape the courts, the big picture, forest-for-the-trees vision found in our Constitution is one of a separation of powers with coequal branches. The Democrats, though, want to make the Supreme Court another legislative body, making laws from the bench rather than interpreting their constitutionality.

However, since Justices are tenured and not subject to election by the people, they are insulated from direct accountability. Judicial independence is critical, as the interpretation of law should not be political. Political reality, though, shows otherwise. Congress is the legislative body, not the judiciary.

Like a powder keg about to explode and vaporize your Second Amendment rights, a Democrat-controlled Congress, coupled with an anti-gun President like Joe Biden would be a legal nightmare and result in the loss of the Republic as we know it. Should Democrats succeed in their goal of packing the court with more Justices, you can be sure that gun control advocates would be appointed, the Second Amendment rights will be rendered meaningless, and perhaps even criminalized as they are here in New Jersey.

New Jersey’s law is written in such a way that all firearms are illegal with only certain, very narrow exceptions. The law wrongly places the burden of proof onto the accused.

If Joe Biden is given the opportunity to pack the Court with young, liberal Justices improperly inclined to legislate from the bench, we will be faced with the end of Second Amendment rights, which are already on life support in many states.

Joe Biden has already set forth a laundry list of gun-grabbing plans he supports if elected  For an in depth discussion of his radical plans to disarm Americans and what they means for you, read Biden’s ‘Gun Violence Epidemic’ Plan is a Blueprint for Civilian Disarmament.

That’s why your vote has critical implications. Packing the Court is a huge issue, with the potential to throw the Republic into totalitarianism. The Democrats will do anything to win, which includes violating the Constitution, this we already know.  Since Supreme Court decisions create precedent, this means that its decisions will carry the force and effect of law for decades, even generations.  Vote for the Second Amendment, every time and without hesitation.

 

Theresa Inacker, an attorney and Second Amendment advocate, is a member of the US Supreme Court bar, the New Jersey delegate to The DC Project, and serves as the Communications Director for the Coalition of New Jersey Firearm Owners.

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66 COMMENTS

    • ‘Red Flag’ James is the only resident at his group home who can put together a (somewhat) coherent thought.

      Trump/Pence 2020

      • Once a pathetic and clueless loser troll, ALWAYS a pathetic and clueless loser troll.
        Dance for the TTAG commenters who actually own firearms you little leashed basement dwelling butt monkey, dance for the soros and Bloomturd bucks.
        Trump/Pence 2020

    • If Trump pulls another rabbit out of his hat then he should troll the Democrats by talking about it just to get their heads spinning.

    • “Court packing will not be an issue until 2024.”

      Dream of a second Trump term, jwm.

      But you had better be prepared for the cold reality of Biden/Harris.

      Don’t set yourself up for a gut punch like they got when Hillary won.

      It damn sure CAN happen to us in November…

  3. An outright attack on RTKB would mean it’s time to dig up the weapons you buried, or lost in that boating accident.

    • I hope you know a few good men with buried/boat-lost rifles too, or you won’t accomplish much against the Stasi troopers they send after you for them.

      • Tbh, if there is a civil war, it will likely be fought most effectively with small teams of 1-4 proven people. I doubt there will be any lines drawn on the maps, everyone is going to be intermingled for the most part. Anything larger is going to be infiltrated.

  4. Wow….this is an easy one…..the end of Heller, the end of MacDonald, the end of the Right to keep and own a gun let alone carry one for self defense..

    Vote….vote for Trump, vote for every single republican on the ballot, especially in the Senate……getting The Original AOC on the Supreme Court means nothing if biden/harris get to replace Breyer and Thomas…..it goes back to what it is now. And if they actually pack the court, the Right to own a gun is dead……..

  5. After today it looks like Joe Biden’s words from the past are going to haunt him.

    ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zte0Jc1jMIU

    • Yeah, but the free abortions and guaranteed minimum income based on inter-sectional virtue will make up for all the less important and, frankly, racist rights;-)

    • “Means start using our guns instead of hiding them like cowards.”

      That’s one of the anti-gun arguments regarding concealed carry.

    • The first rule of operating in a denied area is do not draw attention to yourself.

      The second rule of operating in a denied area is stay away from the chest pounders because not only does it violate rule 1 but the louder the pounding the more likely they are agent provocateurs.

      After it is all over we will write songs about you and perhaps even raise a statue to the brave martyrs who fought the good fight not that you really did anything of value. Resistance is a long term project that requires patience, perserverance and intelligence which is clearly something you lack.

      • Look how many “terrorist groups” were goaded into their arrest by FBI infiltrators. Sometimes the fibbies outnumbered the actual members.

        • Bundy ranch, the latest militia in Michigan. Paid informant and confidential assets out number everyone else.

      • You’ve expressed a new level of cowardice and delusion here.
        The slaves weren’t allowed to sing of their freedom.

  10. I’d be concerned with more than just the Second Amendment if President Harris packs the Court. The Democrats objective is the same as Hugo Chavez when he packed the Venezuelan Supreme Court — to lay the ground work for a dictatorship. But enuff will be fighting for our gun rights from the Gulag.

    • Biden is gaining sympathy daily. That emotion is powerful. Harris is so disliked personally that she is not being promoted by the Biden campaign. She is an unsympathetic person, yet Trump and conservatives ignore her. Trump should be hammering that Harris will be the power, and she is the threat. Ignore Biden. Trash Harris.

      • Absolutely. Trump should be trolling Biden about how Pelosi is already prepping the country about removing him via the 25th Amendment.

        • Yes, that exactly. Pelosi isn’t going to accomplish ANYTHING with Trump. Biden is pretty obviously losing it, he even thinks he’s running for the senate. Two months after Biden is sworn in, Pelosi starts proceeding to have him removed, then it’s all Harris and Pelosi – until Pelosi finally croaks.

      • Trump should be hammering Biden with Harris’ own words. But he’s not. This has been a horribly run campaign by Trump, and the debate was a complete failure. All he had to do was let Joe fail, and the President wouldn’t get out of his own way to let that happen.
        The entire Get Out the Vote effort on behalf of the Republican party has been half-assed and just not serious. Mail-in-voting in historically Democrat districts are outpacing historically Republican districts by exponential margins. If Trump voters are just hoping to show up on election day, they’d better be prepared for 12 hour lines, and I’m betting many first time Trump voters will just go home instead.

        I’ve gone from a hopeful Trump voter to a very doubtful one. (And I’ve already voted).

        Everyone needs to vote early, today if they can. Bring friends.

        • “I’ve gone from a hopeful Trump voter to a very doubtful one. (And I’ve already voted).”

          Same here. I don’t think he really wants another 4 years of what he just went through. I’m not seeing the fire.

          Which may have been the Leftist’s plan all along.

          It’s a bit like Bush 41. After surviving WW2 Japanese cannibals, running the CIA, being VP for 8 years and president for 4, I don’t think he wanted any more of it…

    • If enuf isn’t show trialed as a class enemy, he will be with lots of his Fudd buddies in a covered over hole in the ground.

  11. Even if Biden actually got cheated into office, I don’t think enough of the Democrats in the Senate would vote for expanding the number of justices on the Court to make it happen. They know how just unpopular it would be with the American people and they don’t want to be kicked out of office.

    • One would hope but Democrats always follow the party line. Once the court is expanded the Democrat will be in permanent power so who cares how popular it is.

    • Democrats in Congress will do only what they are told to do. The republicans have a few mavericks, not even Joe manchin of WVA will stand up for himself.
      They are a rubber stamp body.
      Joe wins and we are at most 2 years out from it. Joe won’t make it to may next year, he’ll be pushed aside.

      • “Democrats in Congress will do only what they are told to do.”

        They will goose-step like the good little fascists they are…

    • You don’t know how Pelosi and Chucky work then.

      They literally withhold committee seats and chairmanships, as well as congressional re-election funding to control their folks.

      Democrats are really ONLY allowed to break ranks in controlled situations, where the outcome is known in advance, and the person breaking rank is in a tossup district.

      No, read the Heller Dissenting Opinion. Tells you how the court will rule… no individual right.

  13. The Marxist’s calling themselves democrats,must have complete control to enact their long planed totalitarian utopia. They will go to any and all lengths to accomplish it,so packing the court is but a small stepping stone.

  14. Pack the court and kill the filibuster. Maybe grant a couple of statehoods while you’re at it and there’d be no more opposing party. Time to slink away into obscurity or lock and load.

  15. Court Packing could mean a loss of basic freedoms as defined by the BOR.

    That being the case, the ‘Contract’ could be considered Null & Void and States can decide to leave the Union. Yes, I know that some, even on TTAG, will not accept this idea. The alternative might be that the States decide to pursue a true Civil War and clean the swamp violently for control. Yes, someone will also point out that under current laws secession is illegal. (Texas vs White)

    And I say “And?” withdrawal from the Union could be peaceful or a bloody nightmare. It’s really a choice of The People. What The People want, not what the Washington swamp wants. The Federal Government is a creation of the original colonies, not the other way around.

    Some would oppose for no other reason except “because you can’t leave” …this abusive relationship.

    My opinion is that court packing by the left puts the 2nd Amendment in extreme jeopardy, along with a whole host of other protected Rights. This is the line that can not be crossed.

    No one of a serious nature wants this, many of us who have been to the sandbox and other places know. We know….

    • When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

      We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness

  16. What does enuf think?? He wants Biden to win. Given what he has said about himself (if we can take it as fact) then he’s as probably as dementia-ridden as Biden.

  17. What rights?

    The Democrats have gone full Stalin.

    There will be NO rights, only privileges doled out to the nomenklatura.

  19. There’s no sensible reason to refuse to answer such a simple question — unless you actually ARE planning to pack the court and you know you’ll get hammered later if you lie about it right now.

    The Democratic party absolutely will do it if they think they can get away with it, and Biden knows it.

  20. “This, despite attempts by Franklin Roosevelt in 1937 to pack the Court with political cronies in order to further his political agenda. It should be noted that the idea was very unpopular at the time.”

    As an aside, I once did a project for a college history class that involved digging up primary source political cartoons. The ones for FDR were often quite interesting. He was often portrayed not so much as the “Forgotten Man’s Savior” as he was a crony capitalist (which he was, among other things) and a lot of things one would normally see leveled at the political right in the current era.

    • FDR pretended to be a moderate capitalist when he ran in 32 and promptly boned the country. He did not enjoy the levels of support history books pretend he did. Most people tried to take care of themselves and find a way out of their situation and didn’t buy into the government controls. He dangled work through government projects that edged out the private sector while trying to confiscate wealth at the same time to pay for it. When people tried to shelter in gold he dropped it’s value 90% by fiat. Remind the Midas Mulligans of the April 30 1934 action taking gold to 19.66 an ounce.
      If not for WW2 we would of languished until he died and a true communist would of replaced him. we dodged several bullets in the 40s and Truman was one of the better choices fdr made.

      We are saddled with many of his accomplishments today and have no way to fix rhem.

      Spend time with your elders for a perspective if what happened back then.

  21. “Packing the Court is a huge issue, with the potential to throw the Republic into totalitarianism.” As usual, Theresa’s insightful comments zero in on the lynch-pin issue we all face at this critical time. Redefining, diminishing, or even abolishing the 2nd Amendment (along with the 1st and several others) is going to be essential in order for the kinds of sweeping transformational changes proposed by, for instance, the Green New Deal.

    The existing American social structure, protected by our Bill of Rights and the Constitution, is simply not compatible with the kind of changes the progressive-left Democrats are talking about. In order for the kinds of changes they propose to take place, American society is going to have to change fundamentally. The Green New Deal will require a police state in order to enforce it’s necessarily totalitarian agenda. If you’ve read your history what we’ve seeing discussed by The Left is fascism—-not socialism and not communism.

    Police states can’t function when the governed populace is armed to the teeth. And America at this point is, indeed, armed to the teeth. Talk of “Banning assault weapons” or “weapons of war” are just the tip of the progressive-fascist iceberg. So,what we all have to reflect upon is what happens when the state declares the 2nd Amendment to be invalid and demands that an armed America surrender its gins. In order for the progressive-left (actually neo-fascist left) to govern, in order for it to achieve it’s stated goals, the 2nd Amendment has to be neutralized and America has to be disarmed.

    • “So,what we all have to reflect upon is what happens when the state declares the 2nd Amendment to be invalid and demands that an armed America surrender its gins.”

      They’re convinced we would meekly turn them in. But it won’t happen. When NY State declared ARs had to be registered, only 10 percent did so.

      Let’s hope before it gets to that point that it is made clear to them they would be declaring war on 50 percent of the country. and what it will cost them if they attempt to disarm us by force.

      Because I have a strange feeling they’re not going to get the county sheriffs and the military that votes 80 percent conservative to do their bidding…

      • “Compared to war, all other human endeavors shrink to insignificance.” (Patton)

        Everyone should take some time to ponder what that really means. Left, Right, City, Rural, and everyone in between.

      • It only will take .1% of gun owners to give them more trouble than it’s worth. The smarter ones of the bunch know it but they aren’t in charge.

  22. First the filibuster disappears to remove any Republican road blocks, which just needs a simple Dem Senate majority since it’s a traditional rule, not a Constitution requirement. A packed court will fully support 2A, after they reverse Heller and redefine it as a collective right of the States to have a National Guard and police, with no protection for individuals. Bans and mandatory “buybacks” will then proliferate at State and national levels. Manufacturers they sued out of existence after repealing PLCAA. They could even ban lead ammunition for environmental reasons.

    Expect any post-census redistricting gerrymandering by Republicans to be struck down and redrawn by courts under the name of discrimination against minorities that violate the Voting Rights.Act and 14A. Democrat gerrymandering will be ok because it is protecting those minorities. Any laws to protect the integrity of voting will be struck down as discriminatory. With the addition of new left leaning states, expect Dem control of all branches for a generation unless there’s war. Any socialist/Communist wishlist policy could be enacted without opposition.

    • Except for the o rd who don’t give a shit. We all know someone whonfits that category. Destroy the economy and impoverish people like Venezuela only this place is tooled up and see what happens.

      I’m curious too. Should be interesting. VZ wasn’t armed like we are.

  25. There are maybe a million LE and Mil trigger pullers in the US.
    Most of them would tell a Tyranny to get F’d. Let’s just none do…
    That’s not near enough.
    100 mil armed Americans.
    Millions of dear hunters.
    Millions of Vets.
    Then you have state non-compliance
    Add 2A sanctuary’s
    Anyone stating there’s nothing we can do to stop the confiscation of arms is ether 1. A Fn Dumb Bass, or 2. Troll.

    Hang together, or Hang Apart.
    The communist Dems have already said we are all unredeemably Bourgeoisie, and they will either line us up against a wall and shoot us, or guillotine us.

    You must all realize surrender equals summary execution.
    Your only chance for survival is to fight.

  26. I f he does manage to win, half the constitution will be trashed along with the economy and life as we know it

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