By: Katelynn Richardson, Daily Caller News Foundation
Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey introduced a bill to pack the Supreme Court on Tuesday, claiming during a press conference on the legislation that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett have “no right” to be on the Court.
Markey’s Judiciary Act of 2023, which pro-abortion groups Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed, would add four seats to the Supreme Court. During his press conference on the Supreme Court steps, Markey called for Justice Clarence Thomas to resign and claimed that two justices have “no right to be there.”
“In 2016, Senate Republicans broke the rules and packed the court,” Markey said. “In 2020, Donald Trump helped them to break the rules again.”
Republicans refused to confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016. After former President Donald Trump took office, Republicans confirmed Gorsuch in 2017.
After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Republicans confirmed Barrett in October 2020.
“We now have two justices on the bench, who frankly, have no right to be there,” he continued. “This Republican court packing has given us partisan justices eager to toss aside decades of precedent to satisfy their deep-pocketed, right-wing special interest benefactors.”
Planned Parenthood backed court packing for the first time in a statement Sunday.
“The fight to strengthen our democracy and bolster our institutions has always been intertwined with the fight for reproductive freedom,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“Pregnant people and their families feel the painful, real world consequences of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade that took away a bedrock constitutional right,” Markey said.
Markey previously introduced the Judiciary Act in 2021.
Democratic Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, Democratic Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson, Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush and Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff also joined the press conference.
