Top Democrats in the Senate and Congress are calling for the number of justices sitting on the Supreme Court to be expanded in dramatic reaction to the court’s leaked majority opinion which indicated that Roe v. Wade may be overturned.
“I don’t care how the draft leaked. That’s a sideshow. What I care about is that a small number of conservative justices, who lied about their plans to the Senate, intend to deprive millions of women of reproductive care,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) tweeted Wednesday.
“Codifying Roe isn’t enough. We must expand the court,” he wrote.
“End the filibuster. Codify #RoeVWade with a national law protecting abortion rights. Expand the Supreme Court,” tweeted Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Tuesday, stating her belief that protecting the unborn is a “horrifying injustice.”
“Since 1988, Republicans have won the popular vote exactly one time, but have selected 6 of the last 9 SCOTUS Justices. Expand the court or an antidemocratic minority will continue to control our laws & our bodies,” tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The Democrat calls for SCOTUS expansion come despite concerns from liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who in April last year warned against “packing” the court because such a move could “erode” public trust and delegitimize the institution.
“It is wrong to think of the Court as another political institution,” Breyer said to Harvard Law School. “And it is doubly wrong to think of its members as junior league politicians.”
“Structural alteration motivated by the perception of political influence can only feed that perception, further eroding that trust,” he said.
According to the leaked draft published by Politico on Monday, Justice Breyer had himself dissented from the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, that has Democrats calling for the controversial restructuring of the Court.
“The rule of law has weathered many threats, but it remains sturdy. I hope and expect that the Court will retain its authority, an authority that my stories have shown was hard-won. But that authority, like the rule of law, depends on trust, a trust that the Court is guided by legal principle, not politics,” Breyer said.
