FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ICYMI: THIRD SCOTUS PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION MEMBER INDEPENDENTLY ENDORSES COURT EXPANSION

“Court expansion may be the only thing that will save our democracy for the next generation.”

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December 13, 2021) — A third member of President Biden’s Commission on the Supreme Court has independently endorsed court expansion. Kermit Roosevelt III, professor of constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey School, penned an op-ed in TIME on Friday where he elaborates on his change in perception over the course of his stint on the Commission and underscores the immediate crisis facing our democracy.

His op-ed follows two other Commission member endorsements from former U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner and Carl M. Loeb University Professor emeritus and professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard Law School Laurence M. Tribe, who endorsed Court expansion in a Washington Post op-ed on December 9.

ICYMI, excerpts from Roosevelt’s op-ed are below:

I spent the last seven months on President Biden’s Supreme Court commission, talking, listening, and sometimes arguing with experts from a variety of legal backgrounds—activists, professors, and former judges. I went into the process thinking that the system was working but that improvements were possible. I came out scared. Our system is broken in two obvious ways, [sic] that threatens America’s self-governance. One of them is about the long-term legitimacy of the judiciary. The other is an immediate crisis.

[...]

What determines how many [SCOTUS] appointments a president gets is a combination of pure luck and partisan hardball. We do not staff any other branch of our government that way, and it has distorted the relationship between the Court and democracy.

[...]

Under the current system, a party that wins a minority of presidential elections may nonetheless end up appointing a majority of justices. And once a majority is obtained, strategic retirements (justices stepping down under a president of the same party that appointed them) can preserve it, even if the party wins only one in three or even one in four presidential elections going forward. The result is a court that reflects minority views and values—not necessarily in a partisan political way, but in terms of Court’s [sic] approach to constitutional interpretation.

[...]

We are witnessing a minority takeover of our democracy. The Supreme Court has stood by in the face of some anti-democratic actions. [...] This is a problem of partisan politics. It is the Republican party attacking democracy, and the Supreme Court is helping it.

[...]

The only reform that fixes this problem now is court expansion. That could give us a majority of Justices who would defend democracy against these assaults instead of participating in them. I have always viewed expansion with great skepticism, as a last resort, the fire axe in the glass case on the wall. But we may well be at the point of breaking that glass now.

[...]

Game theory actually suggests that the way to prevent an opponent from repeatedly taking advantage of you is to show that you will fight back. The concern that Republicans might manipulate the size of the Court for partisan advantage in the future if Democrats do it now overlooks the fact that they’ve already done it, in the very recent past.

[...]

Court expansion may be the only thing that will save our democracy for the next generation.

You can read the full piece on TIME's website.

Take Back the Court raises awareness about the urgent need to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court to address the theft of the court by Senator Mitch McConnell during the Obama Administration. Without adding seats, Congress will not be able to restore the right to vote, ensure reproductive freedom, protect workers, halt our climate emergency, or pass new legislation. Court expansion, which can be accomplished without a constitutional amendment, is the only reform that enables the un-rigging of the system and the restoration of democracy. Learn more: https://www.takebackthecourt.today/