News » Eight Supremes Works Just Fine, Some Republicans Say

Eight Supremes Works Just Fine, Some Republicans Say

April 11, 2016

Antique barrister's wig lying on an old wooden desk

The “sky won’t fall” if the Supreme Court is forced to do its job this year with only eight seats filled, according to an op-ed Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote in the Des Moines Register. “The size of the court as Congress designed it over the years has frequently changed, and hasn’t left the court in disarray.” That rhetoric is being used by Republican leaders to rally their base around obstructing a vote on Merrick Garland, the federal judge President Obama has nominated to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. But “History, of course, can be cherry picked,” Washington Post political reporter Amber Phillips points out. “The periods Grassley is citing of more or less than nine justices were due to extenuating circumstances, and that’s not the way the court was designed to function.”

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