The Commission on Presidential Debates will become irreversibly illegal if it does not change course on in-person debates, which in itself could force Joe Biden to answer the single most significant question of this election: whether Biden will pack the Supreme Court with additional seats, forever changing our Constitution. the three-branch form of government into a two-branch system.
The Constitution allows Congress to determine the number of Supreme Court seats. After several decades of trial and error, Congress established nine mandates in 1869, which provided the basis for the stability of the American form of government for 151 years.
For more than half of our nation’s existence, there has been only one attempt to change this number. Franklin Roosevelt in 1937 proposed increasing the number of justices to guarantee a majority supporting the New Deal. Even other Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the idea, and the rejection of the idea helped fuel huge Republican gains in Congress in 1938.
Independent courts are necessary to protecting a free nation, and judges defy the political majority – or mob – when the government seizes unjust power or tramples on individual rights. In 2018, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called an independent judiciary “the hallmark and pride of our nation.”
Not surprisingly, in 2019, Ginsburg declared that the Supreme Court should remain at nine justices, criticizing FDR’s court packing scheme. Closing the court would make the judiciary merely an extension of two political branches, subservient to Congress and the president.
But during the Democratic primaries — before Ginsburg’s death — candidates like Kamala Harris openly discussed passing legislation creating fresh Supreme Court seats to ensure the justices would boost the liberal agenda.
The constitution gives judges lifetime appointments so they can oppose politicians, ignore polls and popular sentiment, and instead faithfully apply the law as written. Focusing on the court to change political outcomes would forever alter our constitutional system of separation of powers and the checks and balances between the three branches of government that have kept this nation free since 1789. It would fundamentally and forever change America.
That’s why President Donald Trump pressed Biden during the first debate on whether Biden would sign or veto Congress’s court packing bill. Biden declined to respond with a damning evasion that his response would become the lead story, which is telling. Harris also repeatedly refused to answer when pressed by Vice President Pence.
On Thursday, Biden said we would receive his response “on the day the papers are filed with the court the day after the election.” It can’t stand.
Given all the pressing domestic issues that deserve solemn public debate, forcing Biden to clearly answer the question about the court appearance is the overriding reason why two more debates are necessary; what is at stake is the very form of our government.
Debates only count if they take place in person. President Trump’s biggest argument is that Biden, 78, has become sluggish, unfocused and frail. In a “virtual debate,” Biden could have an earpiece for campaign policy experts to tell him how to answer questions, or cue cards or a board held above the camera lens to relay words to him.
Only a debate in front of an audience, in which the candidates face each other, can reveal who both men are. Americans deserve to know whether President Trump is right that Biden cannot, without assist, provide complete, coherent answers or stand up to pressure unflinchingly.
However, the debate committee reveals that he is the offspring of Democrats and establishment Republicans who favor Biden; none of them are conservatives or otherwise open to Trump. The only reason the commission exists is to force revealing debates to educate and test presidential candidates, and yet it robs Americans of that by canceling in-person debates.
Americans deserve to be fully informed when choosing a president, and yet Biden has so far been pampered and sheltered. There are many questions that need to be answered, especially regarding the Supreme Court. The committee must either hold two more in-person debates or be disbanded.
Ken Blackwell, former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as treasurer and secretary of state of Ohio.
