Lawmakers have introduced a bill to increase court from nine to thirteen justices
A gathering of Democrats on Thursday officially launched a legislative effort to pack the Supreme Court by extending the number of justices by four. This move that was hailed by progressive activists but swiftly met with aggressive GOP opposition and doubt by Democratic leadership.
Senator Ed Market, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Judiciary Committee members Mondaire Jones, and Hank Johnson, were outside the Supreme Court Thursday to declare their new legislation to expand the high court from nine to thirteen justices.
“We’re here today because the United States Supreme Court is broken,” Markey said, surrounded by the Democratic lawmakers. “It is out of balance. It needs to be fixed.
“Expanding the Supreme Court rights the wrongs the Republicans have done to this great court,” Markey added. “Expanding the Supreme Court is equal justice and will ensure equal justice is dispensed to all Americans.”
The Democrats said the far-right has taken over the court thanks to “norm-breaking” moves by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, and increasing the number of justices is needed to be done to restore balance and honesty to the highest court in America.
Nadler declined the notion that Democrats were trying to pack the court with liberal justices and claimed it was Republicans who packed the court with moves such as blocking the confirmation of Merrick Garland, former President Obama’s Supreme Court pick, and forcing through Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation just before the presidential election.
“We’re not packing the court,” Nadler said. “We’re unpacking the court.”
The Judiciary Act of 2021 is just a two-page bill that would expand the number of justices on the court from nine to thirteen, setting up an instant opportunity for President Biden to nominate four new justices to be established in the Democratic-led Senate.
The legislation has long-odds of passing Congress because unless Democrats eliminate the filibuster, it would require sixty votes to pass in the Senate.
But Markey claims it is time to change the filibuster in order to pass the legislation with a simple majority.
“Ultimately, we have to repeal the filibuster,” Markey said.
Biden himself has been cool to court-packing and has only validated setting up a 36-member bipartisan commission to study the court reforms.
Republicans quickly condemned the proposal as a delusional progressive attempt to take over the Supreme Court.
McConnell, who conservatives credit for reforming the court by preventing a vote Garland and then changing Senate voting thresholds to confirm three of President Trump’s nominees, quickly panned the court-packing proposal. He said the move is created to “guarantee the rulings that liberals want” and would “destroy” the legitimacy of the court.
Progressives, however, said with Democrats in control of the House, Senate and White House now is the time to balance out the court, which currently has a six to threee conservative majority.
“Democrats are officially done being complacent about the courts,” Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, a liberal group pushing for court reforms. “Our goal is to build consensus for this plan as quickly as we have seen Democrats align around the need to abolish the Senate filibuster. Expanding the Court is every bit as necessary for restoring our democracy.”
The constitution doesn’t order the number of justices be set at nine. The number is set by Congress and it can be changed without a constitutional amendment.
The Supreme Court’s website says that the number of justices changed six times before settling at the current total of nine in 1869.
Democrats said the number of thirteen is timely because it reflects how the number of appellate courts in America has grown from nine to thirteen with time.
“Today begins a new era in terms of the Supreme Court,” Johnson said. “It’s been taken for granted for so long that the court has to be nine people … There simply is no need to continue with a nine- person court given the circumstances that have been expressed.”
Jones, a freshman lawmaker from New York’s Westchester County, said the Supreme Court’s decisions on campaign finance, gutting voting rights and partisan gerrymandering show the John Roberts-led court “is hostile to democracy itself.”
Jones said the Supreme Court has been “an accomplice” to voter suppression and creating a path for the “far-right to remain in power”. He said expanding the court is the answer.
“Our democracy faces its greatest test since Jim Crow,” Jones said. “From the insurrection at the Capitol, to the racist voter suppression being attempted all throughout the United States of America, the far-right is at war with our democracy.”
Not only Biden but, other Democrats are cool to the plan of court-packing. Senator Dick Durbin, chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee which has jurisdiction of the courts, said he’s not ready to endorse the bill.
“I just heard about it,” Durbin said. “I’m not ready to sign on yet. I think this commission of Biden’s is the right move. Let’s think this through carefully. This is historic.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Thursday she also supports Biden’s commission to study reforms and doesn’t plan to advance the court-packing legislation to a full House vote.
“I have no plans to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi said.