Longtime Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg responded to the high court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, noting the resulting outrage may lead to increased efforts to expand the number of justices.
The idea of expanding the Supreme Court has long been at the center of debate between Republicans and Democrats but has never gained enough traction to clear Congress. However, Totenberg, a legal affairs correspondent for NPR, said that may change with the country’s shifting perceptions of the Supreme Court, spurred into overdrive by the big abortion ruling that just took place.
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“In this decision, the court spent all its political capital,” Totenberg said. “The idea of adding Supreme Court justices, which I thought didn’t have a leg to stand on, I think at some point may have traction.”
The Constitution grants Congress the authority to change the size of the Supreme Court, and lawmakers have done so six times before — settling at the current number of nine justices in 1869. Several liberal lawmakers renewed calls to expand the court, pejoratively called “packing the court” by critics, and codify abortion rights after the Supreme Court released its decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Friday, which reversed Roe and ended nationwide access to abortion.
“Overturning Roe v. Wade and denying women the right to control their own bodies is an outrage and in defiance of what the American people want,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in a tweet. “Democrats must now end the filibuster in the Senate, codify Roe v. Wade, and once again make abortion legal and safe.”
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has long advocated adding additional justices to the court, told CNN she stands by that call.
“Not only should we look at expanding the Supreme Court, but I think we need to acknowledge that the Supreme Court of the United States has very few checks and balances,” she said.
The ruling also renewed calls to end the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster, which would enable senators in a Democratic-controlled chamber to pass more liberal policy goals despite slim majorities, or to expand the Supreme Court, a move that proponents argue would counteract a conservative high court stacked with three of former President Donald Trump’s picks.
