Overview
- The campaign picked up this week after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled support for “dramatic reform” and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse filed legislation to set 18-year staggered terms for justices.
- Proposals now under discussion include raising the bench from nine to 13 justices, imposing 18-year terms so presidents would nominate regularly, creating an enforceable ethics code, and setting standards for the court’s opaque emergency or “shadow” docket.
- Democrats say the moves respond to a string of conservative rulings that they argue have narrowed voting protections, loosened campaign finance limits, and expanded presidential power, and they point to a July Gallup approval rating near 33% as evidence of a legitimacy crisis.
- Republicans and allied groups uniformly denounce the proposals as partisan attacks intended to intimidate the court, and conservative op-eds warn that changing the court’s size would invite reciprocal retaliation by future majorities.
- Democratic strategists acknowledge passage would likely require winning the presidency and both chambers of Congress plus eliminating the Senate filibuster, so the measures currently serve as a public and political pressure campaign rather than near-term law.