Following up on his campaign promise, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday confirming the establishment of an expert committee to examine the US Supreme Court, its reformation and potentially expanding the bench. 

As per the executive order released by the White House, the goal of the commission is to give “an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals.”

They have 180 days to release a report after the first public meeting. 

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The commission includes a Harvard University professor and widely read scholar who also worked in Barack Obama’s administration, and Commissioners include Nancy Gertner, a US District Court judge from 1994 to 2011 and constitutional expert Laurence Tribe. 

It has about three dozen experts and is made up of judicial and legal scholars, former federal judges, and former administration officials to contemplate and debate reforming the judicial body. 

After former President Donald Trump managed to get in three conservative nominees on the bench during his term. Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation after legendary Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death particularly triggered widespread outrage.

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The US Supreme Court is the final arbiter on fundamental American legal matters, such as minority and LGBTQ rights, racism, the death penalty and electoral controversies — and its justices are appointed for life, reported AFP. 

Democrats had been debating for months about the possible expansion of the Supreme Court bench considering the conservative majority. 

The latest executive order does not explicitly mention expanding the bench but an earlier White House statement said “the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court; the membership and size of the Court; and the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices.”

After Trump confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as a judge, many Democrats expressed their disagreement and dissatisfaction over the refusal of Republicans to hold any hearings for the former president Barack Obama’s 2016 pick.  

House Judiciary Committee Republicans members Friday reiterated their concerns about the Democrats plans to “pack” the court. In a tweet they wrote, “President Biden wants to radicalize the Supreme Court. Your rights are at risk.”

Justice Stephen Breyer asked liberal advocates to think “long and hard” about the risks involved in expanding the bench. He said that this could lessen the trust Americans place in the judiciary. 

During the presidential debate last year, Biden had said “Whatever the position I take on that, that will become the issue,” when he was asked about his views on expanding the bench. 

Activists have been campaigning for the oldest member in the bench, Justice Stephen Breyer,82, to retire to given Biden an opportunity to nominate a young progressive.

The size of the court has been tweaked a few times in the mid-19th century. It was expanded to nine in 1869 and has since been the same.