Committee for Justice president Curt Levey testified Tuesday before the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court appointed by President Biden to consider possible reforms to the Court, including the court packing option favored by many progressives. Mr. Levey was one of a handful of conservative witnesses to testify. In both his written and spoken testimony, he challenged the progressive views of most of the witnesses and commissioners.
For instance, he challenged the view that the Supreme Court, as currently constituted, is dangerously far to the right. Levey explained that the Court’s decisions since Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett were added reveal a moderately conservative Court that angers conservative as often as liberals.
Similarly, Mr. Levey pushed back against the progressive view that Republican presidents have appointed judicial activists to the Court. He described how most of the activism on the Supreme Court has come from Democrat appointees and their “living Constitution” approach to judicial interpretation.
Levey also refuted Democrats’ claim that Senate Republicans “stole” two Supreme Court seats when they declined to give Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing, then confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Mr. Levey told the Commission why we should be wary of any structural reforms to the Court and denounced attempts by Democrat senators—most notably Sens. Chuck Schumer and Sheldon Whitehouse—to use threats of structural reform to intimidate the Justices. Finally, Levey suggested potential improvements to the judicial confirmation process in the Senate, which has become a political circus since the character assassination of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987.
Mr. Levey's remarks can be viewed as a PDF here.