In a recent Lawfare article I outlined the case against "packing" the Supreme Court, and explained why the Court's recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais doesn't justify such a measure. Court-packing is generally understood as an attempt to alter the Supreme Court's ideological balance by increasing the number of justices. Thus, most current Democratic proposals would transform the current 6-3 conservative majority on the Court into a 7-6 progressive majority, by adding four justices.
But there are various non-packing rationales for increasing the number of Supreme Court justices. I sometimes see them brought up in response to my criticisms of court-packing. In this post, I assess the most common of these arguments. In general, I think they are relatively weak. But, to the extent they have merit, they could potentially be addressed without packing the court, by means that ensure the new - larger court - would have roughly the same ideological balance as the old one. That would prevent the slippery slope escalation caused by court-packing would be likely to lead to destruction of judicial review. If you want to expand the Court, but oppose such compromise measures, that's a strong sign that court-packing - not these other issues - is your main objective.
