Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Backs Court-packing; Says Courts Should Not Overrule Legislature

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has backed Democrats’ effort to pack the Supreme Court by adding four new seats that would be filled by President Joe Biden, arguing the courts should not be allowed to overturn laws passed by Congress.

The Washington Times reported:

“I do think we should be expanding the court,” she told reporters.

The New York Democrat, part of the progressive “Squad” collective on Capitol Hill, reasoned the justices overturning laws is part of the problem with the 6-3 conservative majority.

“The idea that nine people, that a nine-person court, can overturn laws that … hundreds and thousands of legislators, advocacy and policymakers drew consensus on … we have to … just ask ourselves, I think as a country, how much does that current structure benefit us? And I don’t think it does,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez appeared to reject the principle of judicial review enshrined in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

While radical, her stance repeated the position taken by then-President Barack Obama in 2012, when Obamacare came before the Supreme Court.

Obama complained “that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.”

Later, Obama, a former lecturer in constitutional law, had to clarify that he did accept the principle of judicial review, which has been part of America’s constitutional framework for more than two centuries, and remains a crucial component of the balance of power between the three branches of government.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.