- Sen. Elizabeth Warren has come out in support of expanding more justices to the Supreme Court.
- The Massachusetts Democrat criticized the court's 6-3 conservative majority.
- "To restore balance and integrity to a broken institution, Congress must expand the Supreme Court by four or more seats," Warren wrote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday fiercely condemned the Supreme Court's current 6-3 conservative majority and came out in support for expanding the number of justices on the bench.
"I believe it's time for Congress to yet again use its constitutional authority to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court," the Massachusetts Democrat she wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed. "I don't come to this conclusion lightly or because I disagree with a particular decision; I come to this conclusion because I believe the current court threatens the democratic foundations of our nation."
Warren said that adding more justices would help "rebalance" the court, which she claims in recent years has undermined its legitimacy and independence because of a slew of "radical right-wing" decisions, particularly concerning voting rights, labor unions, and corporate power.
"This radical court has reversed century-old campaign-finance restrictions, opening the floodgates for corporations to spend unlimited sums of money to buy our elections. It has reversed well-settled law that once required employers to permit union organizers to meet with workers," Warren wrote. "And it has gutted one of the most important civil rights laws of our time, the Voting Rights Act, not once but twice."
The progressive lawmaker also called out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the highest-ranking Republican senator, for refusing to consider former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, nine months before the presidential election, but then four years later, swiftly confirming former President Donald Trump's pick, Amy Coney Barrett, eight days before the 2020 election.
McConnell, who was Senate majority leader in 2016, has repeatedly defended his decision to block Garland's nomination, arguing that the last time the opposite party of a president confirmed a new Supreme Court justice in a presidential election year was in 1888.
As for what happened in 2020, McConnell said because both the White House and Senate were controlled by Republicans, they could move forth with a Supreme Court vacancy in a presidential election year. In his one term in office, Trump appointed three justices to the bench: Barrett in 2020, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Neil Gorsuch — Scalia's replacement — in 2017.
Warren blasted the move in her op-ed as "Republican court-packing" and "Republican hijacking of the Supreme Court."
"To restore balance and integrity to a broken institution, Congress must expand the Supreme Court by four or more seats," Warren wrote.
The senator also cited recent low public approval ratings the court has received as a reason to push for reform. A new Quinnipiac University poll last month found that more than 6 in 10 Americans say the Supreme Court is motivated primarily by politics.
"Rebalancing the court is a necessary step to restore its credibility as an independent institution, one that works for the American people and not just for the wealthy and the powerful," Warren wrote.
Warren tied her stance to the possibility that the Supreme Court may overturn abortion rights guaranteed nearly 50 years ago in the landmark ruling, Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court is set to make a decision to that major abortion challenge by next June.
"Without reform, the court's 6-3 conservative supermajority will continue to threaten basic liberties for decades to come," Warren wrote.