Constitutional Conservatives Should Back the Presidential Constitution to Avoid a Democratic Court-Packing Ratchet
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Here Come the Court-Packing Democrats | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." November 4, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author says Democrats may win the White House in 2028 and pack the Supreme Court, locking in progressive policies for decades and weakening the rule of law. He argues conservatives should therefore stop fighting expanded presidential power, since the president is the only one who can tame the regulatory bureaucracy, and avoid helping the court-packers.
Conclusion
Conservatives should accept expanded presidential power (the 'Presidential Constitution') and stop trying to restrain the executive, because doing so risks aligning them with court-packing Democrats, whose 2028 agenda would permanently entrench progressive policy and end the rule of law.
Premises
- Trump fatigue and the midterm rout make a Democratic win in 2028 plausible, and a Democratic president would likely pursue court-packing.
- Today's Democrats, unlike FDR's party in 1937, would not resist a court-packing power grab, and the judges they appoint would threaten conservatives' free-speech rights.
- Court-packing would constitutionalize progressive policies and make them irreversible, and Republicans would likely hesitate to counter-pack, so it would be a one-way ratchet.
- Ordinary bad policy can be reversed through the political process, but entrenching policy through a packed Court destroys the democratic processes and rule of law that have kept America free.
- The Court's pro-executive rulings (presidential immunity, removal power over regulators) were principled responses to a Congress that has handcuffed itself through the filibuster and gerrymandering, not political bias.
- Only the president can effectively rein in the unelected administrative state, which has become a fourth branch of government.
- In 2028 voters will effectively choose between court-packing and the Presidential Constitution, so conservatives seeking to limit presidential power risk allying with court-packers.
Assumptions
- A Democratic victory in 2028 is likely enough, and court-packing likely enough afterward, to justify strategic planning around it.
- The 2028 choice is a binary between court-packing and a strong presidency, with no third option such as congressional reform or limited presidential power without court expansion.
- Conservatives limiting presidential power would help enable court-packing, or at least be politically aligned with it.
- Democratic judges would necessarily use their power to suppress conservative speech and entrench progressive policy.
- The administrative state can be controlled only through presidential power, not through Congress, courts, or statutory reform.
- Expanded presidential power will be used by conservatives and will remain tolerable when held by a Democratic president.
- The Court's recent expansion of executive power is explained by congressional dysfunction rather than ideological preference.