Shame on author Ponnuru (and the editors of Bloomberg) for confusing "routine appointees" with "packing the court."
The two phenomena have nothing in common.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to "pack the court" by expanding the number of Supreme Court judges who sat on the bench.
No one -- neither Democrat nor Republican -- objected to FDR's routine appointees.
Only contemporary American conservatives would make so bold as to re-write history whole cloth and then, unabashedly, represent their fiction as fact.
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"One of the vacancies Democrats are trying to fill used to be held by John Roberts. After he became chief justice, Bush nominated the impeccably qualified Peter Keisler for the spot. The Democrats filibustered him, and the seat has gone empty ever since. A reasonable case can be made against filibustering judicial nominations, or for it. What can't reasonably be argued is that Democrats should be able to use the tactic to keep a judgeship open until they have the power to fill it with a liberal, at which point Republicans have to stand down." Ramesh Ponnuru in Bloomberg
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