The Senate's Constitutional Report shows that President Joe Biden is not planning to make a recommendation on expanding the size of the court, according to a draft report obtained Monday by NBC News.
The report said that the Commission does not have a position on the validity or strength of arguments for or against expanding the number of justices.
The report talked about the historical overview of court reform discussions, scenarios of expanding the Supreme Court, questions about the scope of the judiciary and judicial ethics.
The decision not to make a recommendation is likely to anger liberals who called for justice after Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation.
In April, Biden created a commission to study the expansion of the number of justices on the Supreme Court. He first proposed the commission as a presidential candidate when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and a subsequent confirmation of President Donald Trump's nominee in the final weeks of the presidential election led many progressives to urge Biden to expand the number of justices. Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a veteran of politically charged confirmation battles, has not publicly embraced such a move.
The commission, consisting of more than two dozen experts, looked at not just questions about the size of the Supreme Court, but also structural changes like term limits and reducing the power of the federal judiciary.
The panel's initial findings, released in October based on months of public hearings and research, revealed that its members were divided on the issue of altering the structure and size of the court.
We conclude that Congress has the power to structure the Supreme Court by expanding or contracting the number of justices. The prudential question is more difficult, and Commissioners are divided on whether Court expansion would be wise, according to the October report.
The commissioners' differing opinions about the various questions they were asked to look at were highlighted in Monday's draft report. The report will be submitted to the White House on Tuesday and the panel will vote on whether to adopt it as its final official report. Copies are expected to be sent to Capitol Hill.
Sources told NBC News that the White House had no involvement in the work of the commission.
There isn't a timeframe for when the president will review the report, according to Jen Psaki, White House press secretary.
The President will get the report and will have time to review the report, but I don't have a timeline for how long it will take to review the report, she told reporters.
It is not recommended that he accepts or denies. He asked a group of experts from across the political spectrum to look at and assess a range of issues that have been discussed and debated by Court experts and to assess and provide a review of that, and to make five recommendations, accept them or deny them.