During an appearance on this week’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said he supported the “dramatic reform” of the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, he did not offer specifics, including packing the court, as some other Democrats have advocated.
“Former Vice President Kamala Harris has called for expanding the court to 13 justices. Do you support adding more justices to the court, Leader Jeffries?” host Kristen Welker asked.
Jeffries replied, “What I support is dramatic reform. And what that looks like to begin with is making sure that the Supreme Court actually has an ethical code of conduct so that they’re not able to simply conduct themselves in ways that are inconsistent with the notion in this country that no one is above the law. And that should actually include Supreme Court justices. And we’ve seen right-wing justices like Thomas and Alito engage in behavior that is ethically questionable at best. That has to change because the American people should have confidence in the highest court in the land.”
“Now, in terms of the broad reforms that are going to be necessary to actually deliver a court that’s functioning like a separate and coequal branch of government as opposed to what we saw, for instance, with respect to the Calais decision, where the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in ways that do the bidding of extreme MAGA Republicans who turned around in the deep south and unleashed these Jim Crow-like tactics — yes, I have a problem with that,” he continued. “It’s inconsistent with the law and with the Constitution. Now, Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and other Judiciary Committee Dems are going to take the lead on what dramatic reform of the Supreme Court looks like.”
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