Reforming The Supreme Court

This week, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a package of reforms to the Supreme Court. Jamelle Bouie summarizes them in his newsletter.

The signature part of the proposal is a plan to expand the court by six members, from nine to 15. The expansion would be staggered over 12 years, with one new appointment every first and third year of a term. Along with the Supreme Court, Wyden would expand the rest of the federal judiciary, adding two circuits and dozens of new circuit and district court judgeships.

Additionally, Wyden would establish a supermajority threshold the court would have to meet to overturn acts of Congress, and he would establish a process that would require the Senate to eventually attend to any Supreme Court nomination lingering in committee, a response to Senator Mitch McConnell’s blocking of Merrick Garland in 2016.

Recognizing the Supreme Court’s recent reliance on the shadow docket, Wyden would require, according to his office, “public disclosure of how each justice voted for any case within the appellate jurisdiction” of the court, and he would require all justices to make their written opinions publicly available. And to address the conflict of interest scandals that have swirled around Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Wyden would require the I.R.S. to regularly audit each justice’s income tax returns, after which, they would be released to the public. He would also require all court nominees “to include their most recent three years of tax returns in their publicly available financial disclosure filings.”

Obviously, the package won’t pass Congress any time soon. But it’s a way to start talking about what we need to do to begin governing again.