Proposal to expand Supreme Court draws Republican resistance

A group of House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation Thursday to expand the Supreme Court to 13 members from nine, working to build momentum for rebalancing the court after an aggressive Republican drive to move it to the right.

The bill, which would change the makeup of the court for the first time in 150 years, is unlikely to move forward even with Democrats in control of Congress — at least not before a new commission named last week by President Joe Biden completes a study exploring the subject. But its introduction opened a new front in the escalating partisan war over the judiciary, drawing outrage from Republicans, who called it a power grab.

Democrats, who announced their plan on the steps of the Supreme Court, said the change was necessary to restore equilibrium on its bench after Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016 and pushed through three of President Donald Trump’s conservative appointees, including one — Justice Amy Coney Barrett — just days before the election last year.

“Republicans stole the court’s majority, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation completing their crime spree,” Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., a sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement announcing it. “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.”

But the legislation has dim prospects in Congress, at least in the short term. With the filibuster in place, it stands no chance in the Senate, where it is hotly opposed by Republicans who say that Democrats are trying to “pack” the court to gain partisan advantage. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had “no plans to bring it to the floor,” although she did not dismiss the possibility of expanding the court at some point.

Pelosi said she preferred the approach taken by Biden, who ordered the new commission to study the issue and report within six months on potential changes to the court.

“The president’s taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing,” Pelosi told reporters. “It’s a big step. It’s not out of the question. It has been done before.”

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the president had not taken a position on the idea of enlarging the court and that he wanted to hear from the commission before reaching a conclusion.

Biden has been dismissive about calls to expand the court. But it became a major issue in the Democratic presidential primaries, and his promise to create a group to explore the idea was his way of avoiding taking a definitive stance. The commission is not expected to deliver a recommendation on what to do but will instead gather information on the implications of enlarging the court or imposing term limits on justices, who serve for life.

Champions of the bill hope to use it to generate more support for an eventual overhaul.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said it made sense to enlarge the court given its complex workload and the growth of the federal court system since the makeup of the Supreme Court last changed in 1869. Its size is set by law, not the Constitution, and it was changed multiple times in the early days of the nation.