Planned Parenthood joins the fight to expand the US Supreme Court

On Monday, Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced its support for reforming and expanding the nation’s federal courts. Common Dreams reported that Planned Parenthood has joined over 35 groups fighting to expand and reform courts in the U.S.

“We think it’s incredibly important, now, to both name the fact that we need to see expanded courts from the lower courts all the way up to the Supreme Court,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood, told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki Sunday. 

“We need to see term limits. We need to see ethical reforms. Raising varied questions about the fact that these people with lifetime appointments are very much out of step with where the majority of people are on an issue that means the legitimacy is, in fact, in question,” Johnson said. “We just felt like it was important for us to lend our voice in a moment when abortion rights is so clearly kind of emblematic of the challenge that we are seeing in our democracy.”

In a statement, Planned Parenthood outlined its reform positions, including expanding the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, putting in place more transparency requirements for justices, adding more judges in the lower courts, and stopping interest groups from looking for judges with similar interests to achieve favorable rulings, “and then deliberately send them cases, knowing they will decide against reproductive freedom, gender equity, LGBTQ+ liberation, access to health care, and civil liberties,” according to the statement. 

“The fight to strengthen our democracy and bolster our institutions has always been intertwined with the fight for reproductive freedom. As we continue to face unrelenting attacks on our basic freedoms, our courts must be one backstop to protecting our rights,” Johnson said in a statement. 

She added: 

Instead, the courts have been used as a vehicle to advance a dangerous agenda against abortion rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and so much more. Planned Parenthood refuses to accept that our courts can only exist as they do now, and understands that reforms are integral to building the public’s trust that the courts can and will function to uphold hard-won freedoms and advance justice for future generations. PPFA’s expanded position is a continuation of our commitment to ensure that everyone, no matter where they live, has the freedom to make their own decisions about their own bodies, lives, and futures.

In a statement Take Back the Court Foundation President Sarah Lipton-Lubet said: 

I couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Planned Parenthood’s leadership to the urgent fight to expand the Supreme Court. A few short years ago, we were told Court expansion was a pipe dream. Now, it’s a mainstream progressive policy goal with the support of more than 60 members of Congress and some of the most respected and powerful abortion rights champions in our movement. With support from groups boldly advocating at the state level to leading national organizations, our movement is growing stronger every day. The right-wing extremists on the Court can try to rip our rights away, but we’re fighting back even stronger — and we’re going to win.

Planned Parenthood noted that the Supreme Court “hasn’t been expanded for 150 years,” while the “U.S. has become much more diverse,” and “the population has multiplied by more than 10, and the volume of cases brought before the federal judiciary has significantly increased.” 

The number of justices that sit on the Supreme Court has changed six times. The last expansion was in 1869 when Congress voted to expand the court to nine justices. 

One-third of the current sitting Supreme Court justices were nominated by former Republican President Donald Trump and confirmed by a GOP-led Senate. 

In addition to expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court, Planned Parenthood said they also support expanding the lower courts “to keep up with the growing U.S. population and caseload,” citing, “It’s been more than 30 years since Congress last comprehensively expanded the number of lower court seats — the longest period of time between expansions in the history of district courts and courts of appeals.”

On April 24, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, along with Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, announced that they would be joining Demand Justice in the “Just Majority” bus tour, aimed at shining a light on judicial reform and an expansion of the Supreme Court.

According to a statement from Demand Justice, on May 4, 33 organizations — comprised of a coalition of civil rights, environmental rights, LGBTQ rights, disability rights, and immigrant rights groups — sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin. In it, they demanded reform or discontinuation of the Senate’s “blue-slip policy,” a courtesy measure that allows senators to approve or reject judicial nominees in their states by filling out a blue slip of paper and returning it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee has the power to reject or accept a nominee. 

“Republican abuse of the blue slip courtesy is creating a two-tiered system of justice and civil rights in our country and exacerbating the backlog cases, especially in districts designated as judicial emergencies,” the letter to Durbin reads. “As Republicans delay and block highly-qualified, diverse [President Joe] Biden judicial nominees, we are counting on you to act to limit their bad faith and to implement the necessary reforms to ensure that President Biden can fill every judicial vacancy with highly qualified, fair-minded jurists whose personal and professional backgrounds reflect the country they serve.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.