Dictionary

court packing en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A change to the number of justices that make up a court of law, in particular the US Supreme Court.
   • We understand these objections; until recently, we shared them, and dismissed court packing as institutionally corrosive and politically unserious. But no longer. The current battle over the Supreme Court changes the calculus; if [Amy Coney] Barrett is confirmed and Trump loses the election, adhering to norms and accepting the status quo on January 20 poses a greater harm than expanding the Court would. 2020 October 4, Quinta Jurecic, Susan Hennessey, “The Skeptic’s Case for Court Packing”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 07 Nov 2020, retrieved 22 Oct 2025:
   • And now there are still plenty of stinging critiques of the court from the right, but there’s also a substantial movement from the political left that raised possibilities of court packing, adding justices to the Supreme Court, stripping the court of jurisdiction and other things in the Biden era. 2025 October 16, Ross Douthat, “Amy Coney Barrett Is Looking Beyond the Trump Era”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Oct 2025: