As Democratic lawmakers call for for adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey is claiming that increasing the number of justices would “reinvigorate our Constitution.”
“I urge all my colleagues to support expanding the supreme court. Balancing the court will undo decades of republican court packing, reinvigorate our Constitution, and protect American democracy,” Pascrell tweeted on Friday.
In a June tweet, Pascrell used the same language, accusing the GOP of “court packing” and claiming that “New justices will reinvigorate our Constitution to reflect our nation.”
The nation’s high court has been fixed at nine seats for more than a century, but some Democrats are clamoring to add more justices. “The number of Justices on the Supreme Court changed six times before settling at the present total of nine in 1869,” according to the Supreme Court website.
Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington declared in a tweet on Friday, “I’m a woman of color who’s had an abortion, is in a loving, interracial marriage, and has an amazing trans daughter. This extremist Supreme Court is a direct threat to me, my loved ones, and to millions of people all across this country. We need balance now. Expand the Court.”
Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York tweeted on Wednesday, “Expand the Supreme Court before Clarence Thomas’ far-right dystopia becomes our reality.” In a post on Friday, Jones declared that “the cascade of horrors won’t stop until Democrats use their power. Expanding the Court is more important than ever.”
While Democrats have been outraged lately by the Supreme Court’s ruling that enabled states to ban abortions, progressives had already been pushing to pack the court prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Liberal lawmakers have even advocated for legislation to add seats to the high court.