Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said she will appoint judges similar to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg if elected president, during the Democrat debate in Los Angeles, California, Thursday.
the 2020 presidential candidate stated.
But what would I do as president? I would appoint judges that are in the vein of people like Elena Kagan, and Justice Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor, and let’s not forget the notorious RBG. That’s what I would do.
Klobuchar continued:
And if you look at my record as a lawyer and a member of the judiciary committee, look at the judges that I recommended to President Obama, people like Mimi Wright, who’s a superstar, and Susan Richard Nelson. Look at who I put in as the first openly gay Marshal in the history of the United States. I did that because I knew they were qualified people to take those jobs.
And you need to do it not only with the right judges and have that know-how, but you also have to do it right away. That is one thing that we all learned from when President Obama was in, and that was that he was dealing with an economic crisis and it was hard to do it right away.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg noted Thursday during the debate that if he were elected president, he would expand the number of justices, according to Breitbart News.
He stated:
The Supreme Court is very personal to me, because my household, my marriage exists by the grace of a single vote on that body. And yes, it is critical that we have justices who understand that American freedom includes reproductive rights and reproductive freedom. But that’s not all. I expect an understanding that voting rights are human rights.
I expect an understanding that equality is required of us all. And I expect a level of respect for the rule of law that prevents this body from coming to be viewed as just one more partisan battlefield, which is why I will not only appoint judges and justices who reflect this worldview, but also begin moving to reform the body itself, as our country has done at least half a dozen times in its history, so that it is not one more political battlefield every single time a vacancy comes up.
Buttigieg said he would let the justices choose additional members of the court, but that “would likely require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allows Congress to shape the courts,” wrote Breitbart News’s Joel B. Pollak.
On October 24, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he wanted to see more progressive justices on the Supreme Court.
“I’d like more justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor,” the senator tweeted after Buttigieg said he wanted individuals like former justices Anthony Kennedy and David Souter, who “think for themselves.”
Thursday, Klobuchar said that if she won the presidency, her goal will be to “immediately start putting judges on the bench to fill vacancies so that we can reverse the horrific nature of these Trump judges.”