Senator Elizabeth Warren supports the law on expanding the Supreme Court, accusing Republicans of seizing the tribunal in order to undermine democracy.
Warren will add her name to a court-packing bill that Democrats introduced in April, which means that four seats would be added to the High Court, so the total number of justices will go from 9 to 13.
This approval has attracted support in Congress from a handful of low-profile lawmakers, as it makes Warren the new leader for court-packing. But President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court commission refused to endorse Supreme Court expansion, while top Democratic lawmakers in both chambers are also refusing to accept the draft law on the extension of the court.
The bill was introduced in July by House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who described it as a benign management necessity. Right now, each justice decides administrative matters for 1 or 2 of the 13 federal appellate courts, but Nadler said that four seats should be added to the Court so that there is one justice per appeals court, which would reduce the strain of those administrative responsibilities.
As the Court is having its lowest number of merits cases per term since the Civil War, and the various circuit courts do not produce cases of judicial caliber at the same rate, there is no evidence that the justices are struggling to keep up with their work.
Warren released a short video, in which she was more open about her motives, as she connected the Supreme Court’s conservative majority with a broader Republican scheme to attach to power by using “broken rules” such as the filibuster and the Electoral College.
“Republicans steal power to ram through an extremist, unpopular agenda. Basic protections like Roe v. Wade, supported by 70 percent of Americans, are hanging by a thread. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
Warren cited complaints to the Supreme Court, citing decisions favoring corporate political spending and a 2018 ruling banning public-sector unions from collecting mandatory membership fees.
Experts say that it is unclear whether the Court’s decision will sweep as wide as Warren says, as she fears that a case the justices will hear in 2022 could “eviscerate the federal government’s ability to fight climate change.”
There are not many Senate sponsors, as speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in that she would not put the court-packing bill up for a vote in the House, and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that he wasn’t ready to back court-expansion or bring the legislation before the Judiciary Committee. The only Senate sponsors right now are Senators Ed Markey (D-MA.) and Tina Smith (D-MN.).
