Congressional Democrats are set to unveil new legislation that will expand the size of the Supreme Court from 9 to 13 seats.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, Hank Johnson, and Mondaire Jones are leading this legislation in the House and Senator Ed Markey is pushing the bill in the Senate.
The Intercept first broke this story earlier tonight.
It should be noted that this proposed legislation is coming off the back of serious news related to packing the court and a push from progressives to pack the court.
Earlier this month activists demanded that Justice Breyer step down after he came out against any measure to change the make up of the court. Breyer, who is a liberal justice, did not make any overt remark against packing the court, he simply stated “to make those whose initial instincts may favor important structural change, or other similar institutional changes, such as forms of court packing, think long and hard before they embody those changes in law.”
New York progressives also recently pushed Senator Chuck Schumer to expand the court in a recent letter. These progressives used the fact that he is up for reelection in a progressive state as a threat to get him to act.
NEW: More than 20 New York progressive elected officials are calling on Schumer to commit to expanding the Supreme Court.
Schumer is up for re-election in 2022, this looks like a shot across the bow pic.twitter.com/xRbErUxPry
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 27, 2020
This group of Congressional Democrats consists of Ineffectual House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Political Hack Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Guam is Going to Tip Over Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Ultra-Progressive Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY)!