GianCarlo Canaparo: Legal Fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

With the Court’s independence gone, it would take on an even larger role in deciding fraught political questions than it does now. The temptation for a successive President whose party enjoys majority control in the House and Senate to pack the court further would likely be irresistible. In a short time, the judiciary could largely supplant Congress as the chief legislative body. Legislative and constitutional questions would be decided, undecided, and re-decided with every swing of the electoral pendulum. No government so unstable could last. Packing the court will only ever yield short-term political victories at the cost of the long-term health of our Republic.