(Headline USA) Congressional Democrats introduced a bill on Thursday to increase the U.S. Supreme Court from nine to 13 justices.
The bill is led in the Senate by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and in the House by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. and Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y.
The bill, according to a statement put out by Nadler’s office, “would restore balance to the nation’s highest court after four years of norm-breaking actions by Republicans led to its current composition and greatly damaged the Court’s standing in the eyes of the American people.”
“Republicans stole the Court’s majority, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation completing their crime spree,” said Markey. “Of all the damage Donald Trump did to our Constitution, this stands as one of his greatest travesties. Senate Republicans have politicized the Supreme Court, undermined its legitimacy, and threatened the rights of millions of Americans, especially people of color, women, and our immigrant communities.”
President Joe Biden last week ordered a study on overhauling the Supreme Court, creating a left-leaning and -led commission that will spend the next six months examining the politically incendiary issues of expanding the court and instituting term limits for justices, among other issues.
In launching the review, Biden fulfilled a campaign promise made amid pressure from activists and Democrats to realign the Supreme Court after its composition tilted to the right during President Donald Trump‘s term.
Trump nominated three justices to the high court, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just days before last year’s presidential election.
Trump also seated Justice Neil Gorsuch, who filled the vacant seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Republicans blocked former President Barack Obama’s attempt to fill the seat for nearly a year, with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promising that nominee Merrick Garland wouldn’t get a hearing let alone a vote during an election year.
“Our democracy is hanging by a thread. And the far-right majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is cutting it…,” said Jones. “The American people have had enough. To restore power to the people, we must expand the Supreme Court.”
During the campaign, Biden repeatedly sidestepped questions on expanding the court.
A former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden has asserted that the system of judicial nominations is “getting out of whack,” but has not said if he supports adding seats or making other changes to the current system of lifetime appointments, such as imposing term limits.
McConnell attacked Biden’s move in a statement Friday, saying it “is a direct assault on our nation’s independent judiciary and another sign of the Far Left’s influence over the Biden administration.”
Justice Stephen Breyer said last week in a speech to Harvard Law School students that politically driven change could diminish the trust Americans place in the court.
The conservative Judicial Crisis Network launched a new campaign on Thursday opposing the Democrats’ court-packing legislation and reminding Americans that Biden opposed court packing for decades until liberal dark money groups spent over a hundred million dollars to elect him.
“For decades, Joe Biden stood firmly against court packing,” said JCN President Carrie Severino in a statement. “But now the left-wing dark money groups who elected him and Senate Democrats are demanding it, and Biden is changing his tune.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
