Noah Feldman, Columnist

Biden’s Supreme Court Reform Plan Is Doomed to Fail

There is no reality in which Congress would pass the constitutional amendments required to enact the president’s proposals.

July 29, 2024 at 5:50 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

A man with a plan.
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg

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When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced his Supreme Court reform package in 1937, he had just won reelection with more than 60% of the vote. His party held supermajorities in both chambers of Congress. By contrast, President Joe Biden’s court reform plan comes at the nadir of his political power — as a lame-duck president forced to drop out of the race for reelection, with a one-vote majority in the Senate and a minority in the House.

When you consider that FDR’s reform plan failed despite his being the height of his popularity, that gives you a hint of what is likely to happen ultimately to Biden’s. There is no reality where Congress and the country would pass the constitutional amendments required to enact it. However, Roosevelt’s plan did have an impact. And Biden’s may as well.