The White House has said President Joe Biden does not agree with fellow Democrats’ calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to be expanded in the wake of recent rulings on weapons and abortion that he called “disappointing and disturbing.”
“This is something the president does not agree with,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Saturday when asked about Biden’s position on adding judges. “It’s not something he wants to do.”
Several Democrats have called for additional seats to be added to the nine-member court, which currently has a 6-3 Conservative majority.
These legislatures include Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rep. Mondary Jones of New York, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
“This court has lost legitimacy, they have burned the legitimacy they once had,” Warren, who had previously asked for the addition of at least four more judges, said in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday. said. “I believe we need to regain some confidence in our court, and that means we need more judges in the United States Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a law in New York State that was enacted in 1913 that restricted the carrying of concealed handguns outside the home. The next day, it reversed its 1973 ruling that women have a constitutional right to abortion.
“This ruling contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply bother us all,” Biden said of the gun rights decision.
On abortion, he said the court’s ruling puts the country on an “extreme and dangerous path.”
Warren said in an opinion released Saturday with Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) Published, appealed to Biden to declare a public health emergency in the wake of the court’s abortion ruling. Warren and Smith said such a statement would “protect abortion access for all Americans, by unlocking critical resources and authority that states and the federal government can use to meet the increase in demand for reproductive health services.”
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Jean-Pierre said the White House was concerned about additional restrictions on women’s access to contraception and other reproductive health care following the court’s ruling. Although she did not immediately have a strategy to share, she said Biden “will continue to look for solutions” and legally determine “what we can do differently.”
Democrats unveiled a bill early last year that would expand the number of high court seats to 13, but that measure came to a halt in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then said that she “has no plans to bring it to the floor”, but that a future consideration “is not out of the question”.
“This has been done long before in the history of our country,” Pelosi said of previous changes to the number of judges, “and the growth of our country, the size of our country, the growth of our challenges in terms of the economy, etc., may need something like that, but in answer to your question I have no plans to bring it to the floor. ”
Polls show that the majority of Americans support federal abortion rights protection. One recent poll by CBS News / YouGov found that 59% of Americans’ Supreme Court decision to oust Roe v. Wade to overthrow, disapprove. Of those surveyed, 67% of women disapprove.
More about the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling:
