LETTER: Who is the court packer?

A Dec. 19 commentary by Stone Washington argued against packing the Supreme Court. He suggests there should be a constitutional amendment called “Keep Nine,” meaning there should be only nine justices, ever. He points out that there have been only nine justices since FDR attempted to pack the court. He argues there should be a constitutional threshold against “political over-representation” by capping the number at nine.

He also refers to the Enumeration Clause, which states there should be no more than 30,000 citizens in a congressional district. If justices were to be appointed based on any population number, we must recognize that there were nine justices in 1955 and our population has essentially doubled since then.

Those who drafted the Constitution did not set any specific number of justices. Historically, the American Bar Association would recommend candidates who were qualified to fill empty seats on the court. A list would be provided from which the president could choose.

We have a situation now where a presidential candidate promised to select justices who would vote in a particular way on a specific issue. That candidate was elected and, through a series of political maneuverings and an unusual number of openings that occurred during his term, he was allowed to pick three justices who would vote to suit him. That completely packed the court with his pick of justices who were apt to vote against the wishes of a majority of the public, but also against court precedence which is political over-representation.