Republicans Accuse Obama of Court Packing as They Quietly Try to Strip the Courts

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Unable to come up worth a good explanation for why they filibustered Mel Watt’s nomination to the U.S. Appeals Court in D.C., Senator Cornyn (R-TX) accused President Obama of “packing the courts”.

This court is where regulation of Wall Street is heard, so control of it is a BFD.

According to Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post, Senator Cornyn repeated on the Senate floor today a GOP fiction they’ve been trying to sell, “He’s (Obama) trying to pack the court in order to affect the outcomes.” Cornyn then accused the President of court-packing for trying to fill seats, “I don’t know what else you would call it other than court-packing.”

Meanwhile, Cornyn on filling empty DC Circuit seats: "I don't know what else you would call it other than court-packing."

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) October 31, 2013

It doesn't stop! Sen. Cornyn on Senate floor talking Obama/DC Circuit: "He's trying to pack the court in order to affect the outcomes."

— jennifer bendery (@jbendery) October 31, 2013

What else you would call it? Well, how about filling empty seats as is his prerogative as President, and part of what the American people voted for.

This is nothing new from Senator Cornyn. He wrote an op-ed a few days ago making the same specious claim:

Instead of trying to fill judicial vacancies where the need is most urgent, President Obama and Senate Democrats are attempting to transform the D.C. Circuit into a rubber stamp for liberalism and big government.

Oh, yeah, in this scenario, it’s not Republicans who are big government, even though they are the only party trying to insert themselves into our bedrooms and our vaginas. The party of “big government” is the party bringing you healthcare for all at an affordable price. That sure sounds scary.

In other words, Republicans now call winning elections court packing. They would very much prefer it if Obama would not act as if he won an election. In reality, “court-packing” refers to FDR’s Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, with which he sought to add more justices to the Supreme Court. That is not what Obama is doing, and Senator Cornyn knows it.

Senator Cornyn is smearing the President because he can’t explain why Republicans would filibuster someone who has argued 32 cases before the United States Supreme Court.

However, the GOP’s motives are clear. On April 13, 2013 Senator Chuck Grassley proposed:

Grassley’s legislation would add a seat to both the Second and Eleventh Circuit Courts and remove three seats from the D.C. Circuit Court.

In fact, Obama is not court-packing, but Republicans are court-stripping. The court currently has 8 seats. Under Bush it had 11, a fact noted by the Washington Post’s editorial board.

Republicans are deliberately refusing to confirm nominations in effect stripping courts of seats.

Cornyn’s argument reeks of more of the GOP’s attempts to present this President as illegitimate. Of course they do this because their last president was actually illegitimate, and by accusing Obama of it constantly, they render this accusation devoid of power.

Being illegitimate is now just another “both sides do it” accusation per your lazy corporate media and court-packing now means letting the GOP strip the courts of seats in order to impose their agenda and remove power from this President.

Sarah Jones

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