Biden creates panel to explore expansion, term limits for Supreme Court

April 9 (UPI) -- After refusing to tip his hand much during election season, President Joe Biden on Friday created an executive commission to explore the idea of adding justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, among other things.

Biden signed an order establishing the bipartisan Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court, which will examine the possibilities of growing the high court to include more members or setting term limits for existing justices.

Since 1869, there have been nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court and all who ascend to the bench are given a lifetime appointment. Vacancies typically become available after the death of a justice, but some have chosen to retire.

Complaints about the Supreme Court rules and structure have arisen among Democrats over the past five years after Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's nominee after the death of Antonin Scalia in 2016, arguing that the newly elected president should choose his successor -- and then entirely abandoning that concept last October for President Donald Trump when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died.

Any move to expand the court or set term limits would almost certainly meet with hard Republican opposition, as there is currently a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court after they confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ginsburg last fall.

"The topics [the panel] will examine include the genesis of the reform debate; the court's role in the constitutional system; the length of service and turnover of justices on the court; the membership and size of the court; and the court's case selection, rules and practices," the White House said in a statement.

Former White House counsel and distinguished scholar in residence at New York University School of Law Bob Bauer and former deputy assistant attorney general Cristina Rodriguez will serve as co-chairs of the commission. Both served in the Obama administration.

The 36-member commission will be required to hold public hearings and produce a final report 180 days after its first meeting.

The Supreme Court's most senior liberal justice, Stephen Breyer, spoke out earlier this week against making sweeping changes. He opined that politically motivated reforms could ultimately erode public trust in the court.

"I hope and expect that the court will retain its authority," he said, according to The New York Times. "That authority, like the rule of law, depends on trust, a trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics."