Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is weighing a 2020 presidential run, was pressed on Monday about expanding the Supreme Court and defending the court’s role in the American political system.
“It’s a different question, how do you expand it, because the Constitution already talks about number of justices?” Mr. Biden said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think what it means is we need to open it up, we need to take a deep breath, we need to look at this.”
Mr. Biden said there is “no empirical evidence” that expanding the Supreme Court’s size would end up increasing the Supreme Court’s ability to interpret the Constitution.
“I don’t believe that there’s anything anybody’s said that would change,” he said. “I think anybody’s premise is pretty dubious, in my view.”
He also said the Supreme Court’s impact on the American political system should be looked at “in the context of a very complicated, amazing American democracy.”
He added, “I would be profoundly interested to see how this is approached, because nobody can say we will have more accomplished, but we may not be able to handle what is coming down the pike.”
Mr. Biden did call it “common sense” that the government should put a bipartisan search effort together. He added, “Nothing is going to happen, ultimately, until the Democrats and Republicans begin to sit down and work through their differences.”
Mr. Biden also said he was open to the idea of removing a portion of Supreme Court justices’ salaries to pay for their security details, which he said are a “significant cost” for the justices.
