SO ORDERED

Biden Launches Commission to Study Supreme Court Expansion

The 36-member commission will examine the history of the Supreme Court and the potential consequences of adding members to the bench.

President Biden is creating a bipartisan commission that will study the possibility of expanding the size of the U.S. Supreme Court, The New York Times reports. White House officials announced Friday that the 36-member commission will examine the court’s history and consider the potential consequences of adding new justices before issuing a report within 180 days. Activists have been pushing for the expansion of the country’s highest court in recent years, criticizing the current ideological imbalance that exists between its members. The court has been comprised of nine members since 1869. In the past, Biden has called the judicial system “out of whack,” but he has never explicitly stated his support for expanding the court or establishing term limits. The new commission will be headed up by Bob Bauer, who worked as legal counsel under the Obama administration, and Cristina Rodriguez, a Yale Law School professor who also worked for the Obama administration.