Noah Feldman, Columnist

The Supreme Court Doesn't Need to Be Reformed

Proposals to pack the court, strip its jurisdiction or impose term limits all have their own flaws.

October 23, 2020 at 1:30 PM UTC

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."

Don’t mess with (mostly) success
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

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With Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court all but certain, Democrats are toying with ways to reform the court. Former Vice President Joe Biden plans to suggest a bipartisan commission to study the options. Unfortunately, the proposals all have serious flaws. Either their constitutionality is doubtful or they would undercut the tremendously valuable role that the court plays in protecting liberty and equality.

The most dire of these proposals is court-packing. I’ve written before that any attempt to expand the court is likely to fail, and for good reason.