House Progressives Call for Supreme Court Changes

Progressive House Democrats are calling for an overhaul of the Supreme Court after recent rulings on gay rights, affirmative action, and student debt forgiveness.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told CNN on Sunday: "The courts, if they were to proceed without any check on their power, without any balance on their power, then we will start to see an undemocratic and, frankly, dangerous authoritarian expansion of power in the Supreme Court.

"We have a broad level of tools to deal with misconduct, overreach and abuse of power, and the Supreme Court has not been receiving the adequate oversight necessary in order to preserve their own legitimacy."

Ocasio-Cortez also said Congress should consider investigating the Supreme Court.

"We should be considering subpoenas and investigations," she said. "We must pass much more binding and stringent ethics guidelines."

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said on MSNBC that the justices "continue to overturn the will of the majority of the people and to make history for all the wrong reasons, legislating from the bench and being political from the bench."

She added: "It is nothing but intersectional oppression."

Asked if she supports expanding the court from its current nine justices, Pressley said: "I think everything should be on the table."

Pressley added that this is "a Supreme Court that has been emboldened in rolling back the hands of time, undermining and rolling back what should be fundamental civil human rights. So everything should be on the table: reform and expansion."

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told The Guardian that the decision on student loan forgiveness is "an example of the court striking another blow to ordinary Americans. This is a court that is out of touch, with attacks on modern life. It's a court that is regressive, that is rolling back women's rights, rolling back rights about racial equality, rolling back environmental protections, rolling back now assistance for young people. And it's exactly why we need term limits on these Supreme Court justices."