Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden pursues expansive judicial reforms, SOCTUS expansion

There has been growing dissatisfaction among liberals about the conservative shift seen on the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years, and legislative efforts to correct what they see as an untenable situation are once again afoot.

As the Washington Examiner reports, Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden has joined like-minded colleagues by introducing an expansive bill that would disrupt current norms related to the high court, expand its ranks, and, according to him, restore eroded public confidence in its functions.

Wyden's high court gambit

In reaction to what he believes is a harmful and swift decline in public faith in the U.S. Supreme Court, Wyden has stepped forward with a far-reaching reform plan.

Though the senator acknowledged the difficulty his proposal would almost certainly face as whole, he does harbor hope that some of the key elements -- including expansion of the panel itself -- can garner sufficient support for passage.

As such, Wyden wants to grow the current ranks of justices from nine all the way to 15, a process that would occur in stages over the course of 12 years.

The Democrat from Oregon also favors the idea of legislation that would require automatic scheduling of a Senate vote on any Supreme Court nomination that has sat in committee for a period exceeding 180 days, something he says would prevent a repeat of Republican Mitch McConnell's strategic prevention of a vote on Merrick Garland back in 2016.

Also certain to generate substantial controversy is Wyden's provision that would require a two-thirds vote of the Supreme Court as well as the federal circuit courts of appeals for any congressionally approved statute to be overturned, raising the bar considerably from the current threshold in which a simple SCOTUS majority is all that is needed.

Expansions beyond SCOTUS eyed

Wyden's bill would not just expand the high court itself, but it would also broaden the number of federal judicial circuits, bringing the number to 15, as the Washington Post noted.

That would yield another 100 district court judge openings as well as an additional 60 appellate bench positions, something critics suggest is yet another avenue through which to pack the judiciary with progressives.

Among those who have taken aim at Wyden's proposal and ones offered by other Democrats that would involve mandatory IRS audits, term limits, and more is Carrie Severino, president of the JCN judicial advocacy group, who characterized the concepts as “a blank check for people who want to harass justices

While polling has suggested that there is substantial support among the electorate for the implementation of an enforceable ethics code for the high court, far fewer Americans have signaled their approval of an expansion of the panel itself.

That fact, taken together with the long odds of passage that stem from the current composition of Congress, renders Wyden's plan little more than a political pipe dream unlikely to be realized anytime soon.