Judicial reform advocates on Friday demanded that President Joe Biden recognize the urgent need for far-reaching reform at the U.S. Supreme Court after he claimed that court expansion could "politicize" the nation's highest judicial panel—amid several rulings that critics said called the right-wing majority's legitimacy into further question.
On MSNBC Thursday, Biden told anchor Nicolle Wallace that expanding the court by adding more justices—a step that's been taken by Congress seven times in U.S. history—"may do too much harm" to the judiciary.
"I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we're going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that's not healthy," said the president.
Shortly before speaking to Wallace, Biden told reporters that the court is currently "not a normal court."
He urged viewers to take a positive outlook of the future of the court, which in the past year has stripped millions of Americans of the right to abortion care by overturning Roe v. Wade, claimed that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to protect wetlands, and weakened the separation of church and state by ruling that teachers can lead students in prayer in public schools, among other rulings.
"Maybe it's just the optimist in me—I think that some of the court are beginning to realize their legitimacy is being questioned in ways that it hadn't been questioned in the past," Biden said.
"Democrats should absolutely harness the court's historic unpopularity to win future elections. But without a plan for structural reform to the court, no litigation strategy is clever enough and no electoral win will be big enough to solve the existential crisis we face."
The court offered no sign of such self-examination as it handed down its final rulings of the 2022-23 session this week. On Thursday the justices ruled 6-3 that racially conscious admissions at colleges violate the Constitution's equal protection clause in a decision that liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned would entrench "inequality in education."
On Friday, the court sided with a web developer who wanted to exclude LGBTQ+ people from her services in a case that involved a fabricated request for her to create a wedding website for a gay couple, and soon after handed down a ruling that struck down Biden's student loan debt cancellation program. The right-wing majority claimed the 2003 HEROES Act "does not authorize" the Biden administration to cancel student debt—refusing to "follow the plain language of the law," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Brian Fallon, executive director of the court reform group Demand Justice, said the president must recognize that the court in its current iteration is "what's unhealthy" and end his longstanding opposition to adding more justices.
"A recent study showed that absent court reform, a majority closely resembling the current one will control the court until 2065," said Fallon, citing research published last month by experts at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Washington University in St. Louis. "This should be a wake up call: the only thing that can ensure we do not face the same crisis every June for the next 40-some years is Democrats embracing structural reform to the court."
He pointed out that major national organizations including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America have recently joined the coalition of groups calling for reform.
"The sooner all Democrats join this growing movement calling for reforms to rebalance the court, the more likely we will be to avoid awful days like this one," Fallon said.
Instead of doing so, he added, the Democratic Party has responded to the catastrophic erosion of peoples' rights in recent years by simply calling on Americans to vote Democrats into office.
"Democrats should absolutely harness the court's historic unpopularity to win future elections," Fallon said. "But without a plan for structural reform to the court, no litigation strategy is clever enough and no electoral win will be big enough to solve the existential crisis we face."
Designer Lindsay Ballant pointed to recent revelations about several right-wing Supreme Court justices' financial ties to influential Republican donors and operatives who have been involved in cases before the court, as more evidence of existing politicization.
In recent months scrutiny of the justices' ethics has increased amid revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas' financial gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow; Justice Neil Gorsuch's real estate transaction with the CEO of a major law firm with business before the court; and Justice Samuel Alito's fishing trip with a billionaire hedge fund manager that was organized by Federalist Society co-founder Leonard Leo.
"If we don't take action," said Reggie Thedford of advocacy group Stand Up America after Friday's rulings were handed down, "this ultra-conservative court will continue delivering blow after devastating blow to hardworking, everyday Americans. Congress should pass the Judiciary Act to help restore balance to this corrupt and out of control court."
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