Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Wednesday urged the expansion of the Supreme Court with more justices, while taking aim at the “gravity of the Republican hijacking” of the court.
In an op-ed published in the Boston Globe, Warren points to conservative justices’ threat to gut Roe v. Wade as one example of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority issuing decisions for years that “veer away from both basic principles of law and widely held public opinion.”
“With each move, the court shows why it’s important to restore America’s faith in an independent judiciary committed to the rule of law,” Warren wrote. “To do that, I believe it’s time for Congress to yet again use its constitutional authority to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court.”
Warren wrote that she did not “come to this conclusion lightly” due to disagreeing with a particular decision, but rather it has to do with her belief that the current court “threatens the democratic foundations of our nation.”
Warren also argued that the issues she has with today’s court go further than ethical abuses, which she attributed to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) having “hijacked” the Supreme Court.
“First, in 2016, he engineered the theft of one seat, breaking from longstanding precedent by denying even a hearing to President Obama’s highly qualified nominee,” Warren wrote. “Four years later, he reached new heights of hypocrisy when he reversed direction — breaking his own “rule” barring votes on justices in an election year — to ram through the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett only days before President Biden’s election.”
Warren wrote that instead of trying to restore Americans’ confidence in an independent judiciary, it “leans into extremism and partisanship.” Warren then warned that without reform, the court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority will “continue to threaten basic liberties” for decades to come.
Warren’s stated support for expanding the Supreme Court that is made up of nine justices comes days after the high court ruled that abortion providers in Texas can sue certain state officials to preemptively block the state’s six-week abortion ban. However, the law will stay in effect for now.
In a draft final report by a commission set up by President Biden to explore changes to the Supreme Court released earlier this month, it concluded hat there was “profound” disagreement over whether to add more seats to the bench, but suggested more consensus for term limits for the justices without taking a final position on the issue.
In addition to Warren, other Democrats have expressed support for expanding the Supreme Court, with a bill introduced earlier this year to expand the high court from nine to 13 justices. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to bring the expansion bill up for a vote.
The argument to expand the the court needs to be based on Moscow Mitch’s theft of Obama’s choice. I don’t think arguing that we have to worry about rights is a winning argument.
In light of the norm-breaking and corrupt efforts by McConnell and the rest of them to stack that court, I think this is a strong argument. Their unfairly taken advantage should be eliminated. But just this once (haha) I’m going to go a bit off topic because other things are important, like simple decency and its return to the Executive Branch. This is a decent human being, and it does my heart good to see him demonstrating it, whether the district voted for him or not. He sees suffering and tries to help. That’s decency.
“With each move, the court shows why it’s important to restore America’s faith in an independent judiciary committed to the rule of law,” That ship done sailed with Bush v Gore and it ain’t returning to port anytime soon.
I’m sure Sen. Libertarian and Sen. AmericaCan’tAffordChildren told the President to go home and take his big-government, Uncle Sugar, FEMA handouts with him, because their KY constituents will pull themselves up by their own bootstraps just fine without him!
Of course, there will be no expansion of the Court while the Democrats’ hold on the Senate is only 50-50+VP Harris and their hold on the House is almost so razor-thin (and when two of the Democratic senators are Manchin and Sinema). But Court expansion must be the Democrats’ goal should the '22 midterms give them even a small net gain in the Senate and continuing control in the House, however narrow.
Do not discount the likelihood of even more outrageous SCOTUS rulings in the runup to the midterms–and not just striking down Roe. By the fall of '22, it will appear an existential necessity that the next Democratic-controlled Congress expand the Court by several more justices.
So good that Warren sets out this marker. And yes, the reason for this must be McConnell’s theft of a seat that Obama had every right to fill.
The last time the Court was expanded, in 1869, it was for highly justifiable political reasons–to protect Reconstruction, once U.S. Grant had replaced Andrew Johnson in the White House. We have to do this again, to preserve our democracy against the very real threat of a fascist dictatorship, enabled by the Trumper-dominated SCOTUS.