Thought this deserved its own thread as this will soon be the defining political issue of our time. Assuming Barrett is a fait accompli, the question will be how Democrats respond should they take the Senate and WH. Do they dispense with the filibuster and add two, four, or more SC seats? I heard a podcast yesterday where doubling or even tripling the number of SC justices was entertained based on the view that the court would be less politicized and ideological if a nomination was unlikely to significantly sway the court's ideological composition. Likewise, how realistic is adding PR and/or DC as states and what are the pros and cons?
A 6-3 court could potentially overturn any major Democratic legislation for decades if Democrats do not add justices. What's the point of holding the trifecta if your major legislation is repeatedly shot down by the SC. I don't see the advantage of adding two seats versus four as two only gets you to a 6-5 minority. Republicans are going to scream and howl regardless of the number, so might as well go for the 6-7 majority IMO. Same for adding DC and PR as states. Again, Republicans would scream bloody murder, but fuck em and their insincere protestations.
The fear of course is that the traditionalists/moderates in the Democratic party will sabotage these efforts for fear of upsetting "bi-partisanship" and the way things have always been done. In my view, any Democratic member of the Senate/House that doesn't go along should be primaried. I'm tired of scared milquetoast Democrats too afraid to fight fire with fire.
Some fear that Republicans will respond in kind should they ever win the trifecta again. However, there are no conservative states they could add, so adding DC and PR is a no-lose proposition. Likewise, it wouldn't be a bad thing, IMO, if Republicans add additional SC seats in the future because that would further dilute the power of individual SC seats. The more justices on the court, the better.