court-packing

noun

court-pack·​ing ˈkȯrt-ˌpa-kiŋ 

variants or less commonly court packing

: the act or practice of packing (see pack entry 3 sense 1) a court and especially the United States Supreme Court by increasing the number of judges or justices in an attempt to change the ideological makeup of the court

"Court-packing adds new seats to a court in order to alter its partisan balance. …"

—Darrell West

What is court packing? Packing the courts is the idea of adding justices to the Supreme Court or lower courts to shift the balance in a liberal, conservative or other direction. And it wouldn't require changing the constitution, either.

—Jared Gilmour

… court-packing, for example, seems likely to set off a tit-for-tat expansion of the court that would benefit no one …

—Sheri Berman

He angers the left if he says he still opposes court-packing, and he runs a risk with the center if he says he is open to it.

—Henry Olsen

—often used before another noun

No president has tried to change the size of the court since 1937, when Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced what came to be known as his court-packing plan.

—Adam Liptak

A court-packing war over the lower federal courts might be almost as damaging as a similar conflict over the Supreme Court.

—Ilya Somin

… a reader in search of deeper understanding of the popular and intellectual currents behind the conservative court-packing campaign is likely to be disappointed.

—Stuart Taylor, Jr.

Examples of court-packing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Even prior to the court-packing plan, a series of cases challenging Roosevelt's plan to take the U.S. off the gold standard and prohibit payment of debts brought the country to the verge of a constitutional crisis. —Scott Neuman, NPR, 16 May 2025

During President Joe Biden’s term, Democrats lined up to embrace court-packing as a means of rigging judicial outcomes to their liking. —Las Vegas Review-Journal, Twin Cities, 19 Mar. 2025

Another solution is court-packing — adding seats to the Supreme Court to relegate the Court’s Republicans to the minority. —Ian Millhiser, Vox, 15 Aug. 2024

Going a step further to court-packing would spiral out of control, with every administration rushing to add a few more justices in some kind of Supreme Court arms race. —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 31 July 2024

But court-packing is a dangerous proposal that threatens to delegitimize the entire federal judiciary, including decisions that are far less reckless than the Court’s decision in Trump. —Ian Millhiser, Vox, 29 July 2024

Many Republicans deploy violent rhetoric and deny the legitimacy of elections, while Democrats refuse to entertain hardball remedies like court-packing and even gamely help to save the GOP House speaker from being ousted by fellow extremists in his own party. —Richard Kreitner, Washington Post, 13 July 2024

Biden’s blue-ribbon panel was widely seen as a repudiation of progressive calls for court-packing, such panels being, in Washington, where ideas go to die. —Ian MacDougall, Harper's Magazine, 12 Sep. 2022

In response to calls for court-packing, the Biden Administration assembled a blue-ribbon panel on court reform. —Ian MacDougall, Harper's Magazine, 12 Sep. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1897, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for court-packing

• attacking
• backpacking
• backtracking
• hijacking
• kayaking
• meatpacking
• ransacking
• repacking
• unpacking
• backing
• blacking
• clacking