Sen. James Clyburn, D-S.C., reportedly threw his support behind expanding the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13 on Sunday, arguing that Congress must take “significant actions” in response to the direction of the conservative-majority court.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked Clyburn whether he agreed with former Vice President Kamala Harris’s call to increase the number of justices serving on the nation’s highest court.
“Yes, I do,” Clyburn responded. “I think we are in a position now that calls for some significant actions taken by the Congress and we ought to expand, and 13 is a pretty good number.”
“A baker’s dozen, it would be a good number to have on the court,” he added.
Clyburn sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s direction, claiming the court “has decided to reverse course” and take the country back toward the era of Justice Roger Taney.
Taney wrote the majority opinion in the landmark Dred Scott case in 1857, which Clyburn referenced by quoting the declaration that “no Black man has any right that white man must respect.”
The South Carolina Democrat also took direct aim at Justice Clarence Thomas, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by former President George H. W. Bush.
“I had hoped that Clarence Thomas would follow the modern underpinnings of that constitution of ours, but he has not done so,” Clyburn said. “In fact, he decided to go all the way from an angry leftist to a very angry rightist.”
Clyburn voted to confirm Thomas in 1991 and described him as “my good friend” at the time while serving in the House. Asked whether he continued to stand by the arguments he made in support of Thomas’s confirmation, Clyburn answered, “Absolutely” not.
“I had no idea that Clarence Thomas would rebel, the way he has, against his own background and experiences,” Clyburn said.
Other Democrats have also endorsed expanding the Supreme Court. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., backed the proposal in a 2021 Boston Globe op-ed, writing that she did not reach the position lightly but believed the current court threatened the country’s democratic foundations.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and other Democratic lawmakers have pushed legislation to increase the size of the court, but those attempts have been unsuccessful.
Former President Biden resisted changing the court’s makeup but later called for term limits, a binding ethics code and a constitutional amendment addressing the justices’ presidential immunity decision following his failed 2024 re-election campaign.
Republicans have consistently opposed adding justices, accusing Democrats of trying to “pack the court.”
