Monday round-up

After last week’s Democratic National Convention, and with Republicans set to take their turn this week, news coverage of the Supreme Court has focused on the ways the court is — or is not — emerging as an issue in the presidential election. Democrats barely mentioned the court during their four-day convention, even as they discussed issues, such as the future of the Affordable Care Act and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, over which the court has ample influence. Sahil Kapur of NBC News reports that some progressive activists saw the failure to highlight the court’s role as “a lost opportunity to rally voters.” Meanwhile, Steve Benen of MSNBC observes that the pending constitutional challenge to the ACA — which the court scheduled for oral argument a week after Election Day — “will help position the issue as a central focus of the presidential race.”

Richard Wolf of USA Today reports that, as the makeup of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance, Democrats are splintered over whether to pursue the most aggressive of structural court reforms. While some liberal activists are calling for Democrats to expand the size of the Supreme Court if the party’s nominee, Joe Biden, wins the election, Biden himself opposes that idea, Wolf writes. And in The Hill newspaper, John Kruzel examines the drastic implications that either candidate winning the presidency will have on the court, though Kruzel notes that, “[d]espite these weighty consequences, polls show that barely more than half of registered voters consider the Supreme Court ‘very important’ in 2020, with slightly more Democrats — 57 percent — than Republicans — 53 percent — agreeing with the sentiment.”

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