by David Shephard, ©2026
(Sep. 9, 2026) — Since 1869 there have been 9 justices on the United States Supreme Court, and according to court watchers, there are currently 6 conservatives, who were appointed by Republican Presidents, and 3 liberals, who were appointed by Democratic Presidents. It was Trump, with his three picks, that finally gave the conservatives a majority in 2020. In an effort to denigrate the court, many on the left have labeled it a “MAGA court.” This ignores the fact that half of the conservatives on the court were appointed by other Republican Presidents, that is, not by Trump, and it ignores the fact that the court has sided against Trump on key parts of his agenda. The court ruled against him on birthright citizenship, they ruled against him on tariffs and they ruled against him on the Federal Reserve. In fact, Trump was so upset with the high court on their tariff ruling that he said that the Justices who ruled against him were “an embarrassment to their families,” and yet Democrats claim that the court is “beholden to Trump.”
The left knows that the court is not “pro-Trump.” What really bothers them is that the court is conservative. The has struck down racial discrimination in university admissions and hiring, they have struck down racially gerrymandered districts, they have returned the abortion issue to the States, and they have clipped the wings of liberal district judges who have blocked the President’s legitimate constitutional prerogatives. The left can’t tell the truth, which is that they hate the court because it is conservative, but they do believe that they can smear the court as “beholden to Trump” and therefore illegitimate and subject to “reform,” which by that they mean court packing.
To those on the left, such as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, who believe that it is unfair that they don’t control the Supreme Court, I would like to tell them that for most of my life our Supreme Court has had a liberal, or shall I say a non-conservative majority, and that reality was never considered to be a problem. In fact, that reality was considered the natural order of things by the American Bar Association, the media, college professors and of course the Democrats.
Richard Nixon, as a candidate in 1968, promised that if elected he would appoint conservatives to the high court. Nixon got three picks; Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, and William Rehnquist. Blackmun was bad, Powell was OK, and Rehnquist was good, probably the only real conservative of the three. Jerry Ford followed Nixon, and he got one pick, and with that one pick he nominated a liberal judge, John Paul Stevens. Stevens was horrible. However, a bit of good luck, little Jimmy Carter who followed Ford, didn’t get a SCOTUS pick. No one retired during his years as President.
Ronald Reagan was the next President and he got three picks; Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy. Scalia was great, but O’Connor and Kennedy were moderates. George H.W. Bush got two picks; Clarence Thomas, a great conservative, who is still on the court, and David Souter, who turned out to be a liberal but is no longer on the court. Obama replaced Souter with another liberal, and he got one more pick.
The conservative dream, which started with Richard Nixon in 1968, was not fulfilled until 2020. This is a good illustration of how long it takes to change the direction of the court. Ironically, if Hillary Clinton, in 2016, spent some time in the closing weeks in Wisconsin and Michigan she might have won, and today we’d have a liberal Supreme Court. But Trump won, and he appointed conservative judges, as he promised to do during the campaign.
Republicans waited for several decades, from Nixon to Trump, for a conservative court. There is no way Democrats are going to be willing to wait that long for a liberal majority. As soon as they take power, before they move to make DC a state or abolish the Electoral College, they will first move to pack the court.
Why must they expand the court? It’s very simple. There are currently enough (young) conservative Justices on the Supreme Court that unless Democrats can find a way to remove them or expand the number of Justices, the high court will remain conservative for decades. So, they are going to try to expand the court to 13. Why 13? Because currently there are just 3 reliable liberal votes to 6 conservative votes. They need 4 more votes to reach a 7-6 majority.
One of the main problems with court packing, and why it is so detrimental to our democracy, is that the 4 new people who are added will come on to the bench with a cloud over their head. Everyone will know that they are on the high court for ideological reasons, and that they are expected to rule a certain way. And if the judges don’t take a politically correct course more seats may be added. Fundamentally court packing is an attack on the framers’ idea of separation of powers, and it will destroy the independence of the Judicial Branch of government.
Currently there is a Republican President, a Republican Senate, and a Republican House of Representatives. Should we add the 4 seats to the Supreme Court now? I am sure Trump would like that. Are Democrats pushing for court expansion now? No, they will push for expansion if and when there is a Democrat President. That sounds like cheating to me, and it sounds like a plan that the rulers of a banana republic would implement.
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