Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal endorses legislation expanding Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices are from top left, clockwise: Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Clarance Thomas, Sam Alito, Amy Coney Barrett,
Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.

ANALYSIS

Led by Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced the caucus' endorsement of legislation to expand the U.S. Supreme Court by four seats, bringing the number of justices to 13. 

The Judiciary Act of 2021 was introduced in the House by three CPC members, Representatives Jerrod Nadler (NY-10), Hank Johnson (GA-04), and Mondaire Jones (NY-17), and in the Senate by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA).

“After thoughtful consideration, the Progressive Caucus membership has determined that the urgent work to restore American democracy must include expanding the Supreme Court,” said Jayapal, one of four Indian American members of Congress. 

“The current bench was filled by a partisan, right-wing effort to entrench a radical, anti-democratic faction and erode human rights that have been won over decades. 

Jayapal points out that "In recent years, this court has gutted the Voting Rights Act and public sector unions, entrenched unconstitutional abortion bans, and failed to overturn the blatantly discriminatory Muslim Ban.”

In 2022, the Supreme Court expects to issue rulings that could adversely affect the long-standing Roe v. Wade, the right of women to have an abortion; as well as issue a decision on Harvard's admission process that could impact affirmative action programs that use race as one of its factors; the legality of GOP-led efforts that would benfit the Republican Party by weakening the political voice of voters of color and other minorities by gerrymandering; and the question of adding more laws that would hinder or restrict voting.

The high court is dominated by six conservative activist justices, three of whom were appointed by former Donald Trump after they were vetted by the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group. The six include Chief Justice Roberts and his conservative cohort: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and the newest member Amy Coney Barrett.

The Progressive Caucus with the backing of advocacy groups including Demand Justice, Stand Up America, and Take Back the Court argue that the Supreme Court has been expanded in the past—contrary to Republicans' claims that the Judiciary Act of 2021 is somehow "radical."

"Congress has actually changed the Supreme Court's size seven times through legislation, previously having set the number of justices on the Court to as few as five and as many as 10," Take Back the Court's website notes. 

President Franklin Roosevelt even advocated increasing the court bench to 15.

The SCOTUS had only eight justices for almost year in 2020 when Senate Republicans violated all historical norms by refusing to hold hearings on President Obama's nominee, present Attorney General Merrick Garland, to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia until the seat could be filled by a Republican president.

The impact of this conservative court could have major ramifications for the country for the next half-century. At stake are liberal laws that brought more equality and equity to people of color and benefited the middle class such as Social Security, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and Voting Rights.

Just this past year, 

• The court ruled against revealing the sources of dark money that fueled GOP political efforts and supported Trump rallies and spread his lies, weakened;

• Ruled against the right of unions to organize at worksites;

• Set the stage for more restrictive voting laws by ruling in an Arizona case banning  voting in the wrong precinct and a ban on third-party collection of ballots from voters unable to vote in person.

Today's SCOTUS is very conservative, reports Five-Thirty-eight. According to the Supreme Court Database, 60% of all decisions last term went in a conservative direction, as well as 59% of close decisions — which is to say, decisions in which the minority side had three or four votes

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, perhaps the most outspoken of the court’s three liberals, minced no words in describing the repercussions if the court were to uphold Mississippi’s controversial ban on abortions by the 15-week of a woman's pregnancy effectively banning Roe v. Wade.

“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” she asked Mississippi’s solicitor general during oral arguments last year. “I don't see how it is possible.”

“The critical issues that impact our day-to-day lives – such as voting and civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate justice, and consumer and workers’ rights – are being decided by a GOP-packed conservative supermajority on a United States Supreme Court, which is destroying its own legitimacy with partisan decisions that are upending decades of precedent and progress in this nation,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-GA, a Progressive Caucus member and chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. 

He concludes: "The need to expand the Court is necessary to safeguard the liberties of all who live in this country.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution -- this is an analysis, meaning it is news laced with my opinions. For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.