Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., one of a group of progressive Democrat lawmakers who introduced legislation Thursday that would add four seats to the U.S. Supreme Court, blamed the high court for ”actively dismantling our democracy for years” and gutting the protections of the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for a ”new era of racist voter suppression.”
“This crisis didn’t arrive overnight or by accident,” Jones said in a Twitter video that showed images of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots. “The Supreme Court helped bring us here. In fact, the court has been actively dismantling our democracy for years.”
The court, he said, “invited a torrent of dark money to flood our electoral process and set the stage for billionaires and special interests to control our politics” and ”gutted the protections of the Voting Rights Act and paved the way for a new era of racist voter suppression.”
Jones also claimed that the Supreme Court “helped install [former President] Donald Trump in the White House” who then in turn appointed “more justices who are hostile to our democracy.”
The bill has slim hopes of passage — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters she had plans to bring it to the House floor — but reflects progressives’ impatience with President Joe Biden’s approach toward a conservative Supreme Court.
Biden last week signed an executive order establishing a 36-member commission to report back within six months on possible changes to the Supreme Court’s membership, jurisdiction and life terms.
Jones also called on people to”break the far-right, anti-democratic grip on our democracy” and ”expand the Supreme Court.”
“And together, we can finally restore government by the people, instead of government by the powerful,” he added.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who co-sponsored the legislation, said more than just a commission is needed to ”restore integrity to the court.”
Pelosi said the idea is ”a big step” and ”not out of the question.”
”I think it’s an idea that should be considered, and I think the president is taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing,” she told reporters.
Source: Newmax
