Joe Biden says commission to 'reform' Supreme Court will go 'well beyond' court packing

During a yet-to-be-aired "60 Minutes" interview, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced that, if elected in November, he would establish a commission to reform the Supreme Court — and changes to be considered would go "well beyond" just court packing.

"If elected, what I will do is I'll put together a national commission of, a bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative. And I will ask them to over 180 days come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it's getting out of whack ... the way in which it's being handled," Biden said in a clip from the interview posted to Twitter Thursday.

"And it's not about court packing. There's a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I've looked to see what recommendations that commission might make," he added.

"There's a number of alternatives that go well beyond packing," he indicated. "The last thing we need to do is turn the Supreme Court into just a political football — whoever has the most votes gets whatever they want. Presidents come and go. Supreme court justices stay for generations."

It was not immediately clear to what "alternatives" Biden was referring to, and it's doubtful that the candidate will disclose them before the election, anyhow.

The comments are likely to stir up more controversy around the issue as Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) have been purposefully tightlipped about their intentions, refusing to indicate whether they would add seats to the court in response to Judge Amy Coney Barrett's expected confirmation to the Supreme Court.

At one point earlier this month, Biden even snapped after being asked about his intentions and amazingly stated that voters don't deserve to know his stance on the issue before the election.

Then last week, when pressed on the issue once again, Biden hinted that he's "not a fan" of court packing but still refused to give a clear answer on the issue.

TheBlaze noted in a recent report that any attempt to grow the Supreme Court will need to go through Congress first, and thus a number of moderate Democrats, especially in the Senate, would need to be convinced.

That effort may prove to be particularly difficult since a majority of Americans — 58% — still oppose court packing, according to a recent poll conducted by the New York Times.