Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said this week she supports reforming the U.S. Supreme Court, dodging a question about court-packing but acknowledging she believes the nation's highest judicial body needs to be changed. Harris' remarks during a CNN town hall came in response to a question about expanding the court from 9 to 12 members representing each circuit.
The audience member asked, "Would you be in favor of expanding the court?" Harris answered, "To your point, there is no question that the American people increasingly are losing confidence in the Supreme Court, and in large part because of the behavior of certain members of that court and because of certain rulings, including the Dobbs decision in taking away a precedent that had been in place for 50 years protecting a woman's right to make decisions about her own body.
"So I do believe that there should be some kind of reform of the court, and we can study what that actually looks like."
The Dobbs ruling, handed down in 2022, overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of abortion back to the states.
Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of First Liberty Institute, criticized Harris' comments and urged her to clarify where she stands on court-packing.
"Transforming the Supreme Court into another partisan body would destroy the independence of the judiciary and threaten the civil liberties of all Americans," Shackelford said. "American voters deserve to know where all the presidential candidates stand on court packing."
Carrie Severino, president of the conservative judicial advocacy group JCN, also criticized Harris. At another point during the town hall, Harris said Democrats should explore ending the filibuster. "I think we need to take a look at the filibuster," she said when asked how she would pass a bill codifying Roe v. Wade into law. In September, she told a Wisconsin radio station, "I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe."
🚨Kamala Harris indicated that if Democrats take full control of the government they will eliminate the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court. Court packing used to be universally recognized as a fringe and dangerous idea that would destroy judicial independence but it’s now… pic.twitter.com/LURrag9Mn0
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) October 24, 2024
"Kamala Harris indicated that if Democrats take full control of the government, they will eliminate the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court," Severino said. "Court-packing used to be universally recognized as a fringe and dangerous idea that would destroy judicial independence, but it's now become one of the Democratic Party's main objectives because they're furious that the Court isn't ruling the [way] they want in every single case."
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.