court-packing

noun

court-pack·ing | \ ˈkȯrt-ˌpa-kiŋ

variants: or less commonly court packing

Definition of 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 LiptakA 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.