Expand the Judiciary

Rebalancing the court to counteract the three Supreme Court justice appointments by a twice-impeached and indicted president would increase the institutional legitimacy of an increasingly partisan Court.

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After the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, overturning Roe v.Wade, the Supreme Court had a net-negative favorability in an NBC News poll for the first time in the poll’s history. The lack of public trust in this previously widely admired institution represents a turning point in how Americans view the Supreme Court. The overturning of Roe v. Wade did not start the lack of trust in the Supreme Court, but it accelerated the trend. After Bush v. Gore (2000) decision, Americans began to view the Court as a political actor rather than an impartial arbitrator. This only increased with the machinations by Senator McConnell that prevented President Obama from appointing a replacement for Justice Scalia for nearly a year, but allowed President Trump to replace Justice Ginsburg less than a month before the 2020 election. McConnell changed the number of Justices on the court for nearly a year, reducing it from 9 to 8, to have a court majority that aligned with his own political beliefs.

This de facto court packing created a 6-3 conservative majority on the court that is deciding cases on a more partisan basis. As Justice Sotomayor asked during oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson, “Can this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the co