Things look bleak for legislative effort to expand Supreme Court to 13 justices

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Democrats unveiled the Judiciary Act of 2021, a proposal to increase the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices from nine to 13. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has “no plans to bring it to the floor.”

Reps. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee; Hank Johnson; Mondaire Jones; and Sen. Ed Markey co-sponsored the bill since conservatives have a 6-3 majority.

“We are not packing the Supreme Court, we are unpacking it,” Nadler said during a news conference on Thursday.

Markey said the Supreme Court “is broken” and it is no longer an impartial, judicial branch of government.

“Too many Americans have lost faith in the court as a neutral arbiter of the most important constitutional and legal questions that arise in our judicial system,” Markey said.

President Biden signed an executive order last week to set up a bipartisan commission to look into ways to reform the court. Pelosi said she supports the commission.


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The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.