House Democrats tout bill to add four seats to Supreme Court – By Julia Mueller (The Hill) / July 18, 2022
A group of House Democrats called for legislation on Monday that would add four seats to the Supreme Court, lamenting a “ultra right-wing” branch that just overturned the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights.
The eight lawmakers cited recent SCOTUS decisions that rolled back Miranda rights, threw out a New York gun control law and allowed religion to surface in schools — as well as the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision that overturned the right to abortion in Roe — in saying there was a need to add new justices to the court.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), the lead sponsor of the 2021 Judiciary Act, called the current makeup “a Supreme Court at crisis with itself and with our democracy,” where “basic freedoms are under assault” from the 6-3 conservative supermajority on the bench.
SCOTUS isn’t susceptible to the popular vote the way Congress is, Johnson said, and it’s used that to amass power. “It’s making decisions that usurp the power of the legislative and executive branches,” he said.
