Supporters say the bill will ensure transparency and accountability while critics say it is an effort to make the high court more liberal.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) unveiled comprehensive reform legislation on Sept. 26 to add six justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, raising the total from the current nine members to 15.
The measure follows a bipartisan commission established by President Joe Biden found in late 2021 that Congress had authority to expand Supreme Court membership, and took no position on whether it should be done.
Wyden’s bill, called the Judicial Modernization and Transparency Act, would expand the court over a period of 12 years. A president would be allowed to appoint one nominee in each of the first and third years of a term in office.
It would also require a vote of two-thirds of Supreme Court justices to overturn acts of Congress, instead of a simple majority. One provision would subject justices to annual IRS audits of their tax returns and require the returns and audit results to be made public.
“The Supreme Court is in crisis and bold solutions are necessary to restore the public trust,” Wyden said in a statement.
“More transparency, more accountability and more checks on a power hungry Supreme Court are just what the American people are asking for.”
Congressional Democrats have been demanding reforms in recent years as they have grown increasingly incensed by high court rulings they disagree with on issues such as abortion, gun rights, environmental policy, and the administrative state.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, opposes Supreme Court expansion.
“Sen. Graham is staunchly opposed to liberal Democrats’ efforts to pack the court,” Taylor Reidy, the senator’s communications director, told The Epoch Times.
“He’s noted in the past that calls to pack the court are not efforts to make the court better. It’s simply a desire to make it more liberal.”
The justices approved a code of conduct governing their own behavior in November 2023. Critics say the code is toothless because it relies on voluntary compliance.
Democrats have also criticized conservative justices such as Clarence Thomas for failing to initially declare gifts from wealthy friends who are Republican donors.
Republicans say there is no evidence that Thomas granted any judicial favors to any of the gift givers. Thomas has said he was told he did not have to report the gifts and has vowed to disclose them going forward.
Congressional Republicans say Democrats’ efforts to reform the Supreme Court are part of a larger political calculation.
“It’s part of a campaign by the left to harass the Supreme Court because you don’t like some of the recent decisions,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said at a congressional hearing in November 2023.
“This is all part of the left’s political master plan to delegitimize the Supreme Court.”
Wyden’s bill also imposes new requirements on Supreme Court justices and nominees.
All Supreme Court nominees would be required to make three years of tax returns public upon nomination. Sitting justices would be recused from a case upon a two-thirds vote of the Supreme Court. The bill would also expand the number of circuit courts of appeal from the current 13 to 15.
Other bills aimed at the Supreme Court are pending in Congress.
The proposed Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act would allow members of the public to file complaints against justices for violating a code of conduct or for engaging “in conduct that undermines the integrity” of the court. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill in July 2023.
One bill would limit the value of gifts justices may receive to $50, the same limit that applies to federal lawmakers.
Another bill would limit Supreme Court justices’ terms to 18 years, a proposal endorsed by Biden.