Repairing the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court was meant to be an impartial guardian of justice, but today it has become a concentration of power vulnerable to corruption and political manipulation. To restore trust and strengthen democracy, we must reform the Court’s structure, authority, and accountability.

Key Principles

• Expand the Court:

  • Increase the number of justices from 9 to 13—matching the number of circuit courts.
  • Distribute workloads more effectively and reduce the concentration of influence in too few hands.
  • Make it harder for billionaires and special interests to buy influence.

• Redefine Bribery & Enforce Criminal Penalties:

  • Restore strict definitions of bribery that the Court itself has eroded.
  • Make bribery of justices a criminal offense with real consequences, not just small fines.

• Judicial Review Reform:

  • Codify judicial review explicitly in the Constitution to end the legacy of the 1803 “power grab.”
  • Establish a clear, transparent process for deciding constitutional cases—ending opaque practices like the shadow docket.

• Limit Elite Capture of Justice:

  • Ensure ordinary Americans—not just the wealthy—have meaningful access to the highest court.
  • Break the cycle where money and privilege dominate outcomes.

• Acknowledge Law as Power:

  • Recognize, as Critical Legal Studies has argued, that law is often a tool of the powerful to maintain inequality.
  • Reclaim law as a tool for the people, not for entrenched elites.

Why It Matters

For decades, billionaires and corporations have used the courts to wage an economic war on working Americans. A reformed Supreme Court—with more justices, stronger anti-bribery laws, and a constitutional mandate for transparent judicial review—will be harder to corrupt and more accountable to the people.

Justice must serve democracy—not wealth and power.