Packing And Unpacking State Supreme Courts

A legislative effort this week to increase the size of the North Carolina Supreme Court by two seats, to be filled by the newly elected Republican governor, prompted Gavel to Gavel, the blog of the National Center for State Courts, to tally up efforts to change the size of state Supreme Courts over the last five years, all of which have been unsuccessful. A union-backed 2007 initiative in MIchigan to reduce the size of our Supreme Court is unusual but not unique (packing is clearly a more favored tactic than unpacking): An Alabama Senate bill proposed a reduction in 2007, a proposal to reduce the Nevada Supreme Court by two justices while establishing an intermediate appellate court was rejected by the voters in 2010, and a Montana legislator proposed a reduction in that state's Supreme Court in 2011.