Two conservative members have resigned from a commission tasked with studying the issue of adding new members to the United States Supreme Court.
Caleb Nelson, law professor and a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, and Jack Goldsmith, a former top Department of Justice lawyer under President George W. Bush, both left the commission Friday, The Hill reported.
“These two commissioners have chosen to bring their involvement to a close,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told The Post. “We respect their decision and very much appreciate the significant contributions that they made during the last five months in terms of preparing for these deliberations.”
The commission was established by President Biden in April as an olive branch to progressives outraged by the rightward drift of the court in recent years. Conservatives have long derided any move to expand the nine-judge court as a partisan court-packing scheme.
The commission threw cold water on liberal hopes Thursday after the release of preliminary findings which did not take a favorable view of expansion.
“The risks of Court expansion are considerable, including that it could undermine the very goal of some of its proponents of restoring the Court’s legitimacy,” it read. “Recent polls suggest that a majority of the public does not support Court expansion.”