Court-packing is a danger to American society

Near the end of the Trump presidency, his legacy was already beginning to take shape. A majority of the accomplishments that were made during his tenure are likely to be overshadowed by the unprecedented attempt by Mr. Trump and his supporters to overturn a free and fair election. The Trump presidency is a stain on the fabric of American democracy that can never be washed out.

Yet, despite this, there is one action Mr. Trump took that is arguably more dangerous to democracy. The three appointments to the Supreme Court and the hundreds to lower courts that Mr. Trump made with the help of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have a lasting impact on the federal judiciary for decades to come. This itself is not something out of the ordinary for modern presidents of either party. Packing courts with judges and justices that have opinions which favor one party over another goes against the entire concept of an independent judiciary. When this country was founded, the judicial branch was meant to be a nonpartisan check on the other branches, which had been traditionally more prone to partisanship. When the political alignment of the courts shifts every 10–20 years, case law can be drastically changed, not based on purely legal issues but rather moral ones. This itself is dangerous: When a legal system is not based on legal precedent, but rather on the opinion of the majority, it eats away at the core of a society.

This is why, no matter what party you may subscribe to, we can’t allow the majority to unfairly alter the legal system.