President Joe Biden will order a bipartisan commission to study, over 180 days, whether to expand the Supreme Court, fulfilling a campaign promise urged by Democrats who have called for adding seats to the bench or instituting term limits for justices.

Biden faced increasing pressure from members of his party after then-President Donald Trump named three justices to the court, resulting in a bench with a conservative 6-3 balance. One of those seats was filled days before the 2020 presidential election, when Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden has declined to say whether he supports efforts to reform the court, such as expanding the number of justices or instituting term limits. Justices currently serve lifetime appointments.

Still, the president has said in the past that the system is “getting out of whack.”

Biden’s executive order calls for naming a 36-person commission that will review the court’s history, precedent around changes to the nomination process, and will investigate the potential consequences of altering the court’s size, according to the White House.

It will also hold public meetings to solicit outside opinions.

The commission will not issue specific recommendations once it completes its study, however.

Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodriguez and New York University law professor and former White House counsel Bob Bauer will co-lead the commission.

Bauer, a veteran of the Obama White House, is married to Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn and also served as counsel to the Democratic leader during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.

Rodriguez is the former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.

Original Location: Biden ordering commission to study expanding Supreme Court