Rep. James Clyburn (D) of South Carolina said today on Meet the Press that he supports adding 4 new Justices to the Supreme Court. This would bring the total to 13 and that is a common number people have focused on since there are 13 judicial circuits. In the distant past the two numbers were kept in line. “13 is a pretty good number,” said Clyburn. “A baker’s dozen would be a good number to have on the Court.” This is a big deal. The particular number doesn’t really matter. I see adding 4 to get to 13 as sort of the minimum acceptable goal. But the point here is rapidly (in time for 2029) establishing Court expansion and reform more broadly as the consensus Democratic position. We don’t know if Democrats will get a trifecta in 2028. But it’s the first plausible opportunity to expand the Court.
Sometimes I’ll hear people say: Why start talking about it now? You complicate the 2026 midterms. Maybe you give the Republicans ideas? Why not just keep it close to the vest and spring it on them in January 2029?
Put simply, that’s just not how it works.
The inertial forces against reform are massive. Even among many elected Democrats who are pretty good on other issues, it’s often a very heavy lift. It’s only very recently that Court reform has ever moved into the realm of conceivable for most of them. Change, building that consensus can only happen as a bottom up process, making it clear that accepting the perpetuation of the Corrupt Court as it exists today is an unacceptable position for a Democrat, certainly at the federal level. As a bottom up process it can only be a public process. You’ll only know someone is on board when they say it publicly and clearly. Even then you can’t be totally sure. But once a politician has committed publicly, it’s much harder to shift. And when you’ve got the great majority publicly committing, the pressure heightens on those who remain opposed or silent in inverse proportion to their declining numbers. The same applies to abolishing the filibuster and a lot else.
As far as I know Clyburn is the first Democrat in leadership in either House to announce for Court expansion, and one of the relative few generally. Jeffries has signaled general support or openness to reform in recent months. And that’s important too. But it only becomes hard and real when the details are attached.
