Turley Warns Dems Are Renewing Push To Expand Supreme Court

Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley warned Monday that renewed Democratic calls to expand the U.S. Supreme Court represent a serious threat to the nation’s constitutional system.

Turley made the remarks while responding to comments from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who suggested that expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices could align the high court with the structure of the federal judiciary.

Turley rejected that argument, accusing Buttigieg of political pandering and warning that court-expansion proposals are not about reforming the judiciary, but about changing the ideological balance of the court.

“He went before an audience and had to offer them something, so he offered them up the United States Supreme Court, perhaps the single most important institution in this country’s constitutional system,” Turley said.

Turley said Buttigieg’s justification for a 13-member court does not hold up.

“He’s wrong,” Turley said.

“This wouldn’t reflect the district court system.”

“I think he’s referring to the circuit courts, the fact that there are 13 of them, but that’s the extent of that analysis.”

Turley then broadened his criticism, arguing that court-packing fits into a larger progressive push to weaken or rewrite long-standing constitutional limits.

“What is really troubling here, and I go into this in my book, ‘Rage and the Republic,’ is that at our 250th anniversary, pundits and professors are calling to trash the Constitution or make radical changes,” Turley said.

According to Turley, some on the left increasingly view the Supreme Court as an obstacle to political outcomes they want imposed nationally. He argued that expanding the court is less about judicial efficiency and more about securing favorable rulings on controversial policy priorities.

“And as I discuss in the book, they openly talk about the need to guarantee, once they retake power, never to lose it again,” Turley said.

Turley also pointed to comments from academics who have argued that certain progressive policies may not survive review before the current Supreme Court.

“One Harvard professor said, ‘Look, all the things we’re talking about here are not going to get through the Supreme Court. So, we have to take over the Supreme Court,’” Turley said.

That, Turley argued, is the real issue behind the renewed push to add justices.

“So that’s what we’re talking about here,” he said.

“And they’re trying to condition voters that it is worth guaranteeing us power to trade off core institutions like the court.”

During the segment, Fox News anchor John Roberts played clips of prominent Democrats criticizing recent Supreme Court rulings.

Turley said there is a major difference between historical changes to the size of the Supreme Court and the modern Democratic push to pack the court for political gain.

“There’s a difference between expanding the court gradually, and what these Democrats are talking about, which is packing the court,” Turley said.

He said the goal is straightforward: changing outcomes in major cases by adding liberal justices.

“Adding four liberal justices to flip the result of cases,” he said.

Turley cited race-based policies and proposals for a federal wealth tax as examples of measures that could face serious constitutional hurdles before the current court. In his view, court-packing is being promoted as a way to bypass those limits rather than respect them.

“This whole list of items that the Democrats want to do to guarantee power require them to take this hostile move against the court,” Turley said.

The warning comes as Democrats continue attacking the Supreme Court over rulings that have frustrated the left’s policy agenda. Conservatives, meanwhile, argue that the court is performing its constitutional role by checking executive and legislative overreach.

For those who believe in separation of powers, judicial independence, and constitutional restraint, Turley’s warning cuts to the heart of the issue. A Supreme Court that can be expanded whenever one party dislikes its rulings is no longer an independent institution. It becomes another political weapon.

Turley concluded by warning that politicians who support such a move are sacrificing America’s long-term constitutional stability for short-term political advantage.

“And these are people who are showing that they are politicians who can’t think beyond the next election, let alone the next generation,” Turley said.

“And it is dangerous.”

The debate over court-packing is not merely a procedural fight over the number of justices. It is a battle over whether America’s constitutional guardrails will survive the demands of politicians who want power without limits.