Some thoughts on expanding the Supreme Court in following Congressional periods with a modest eye toward feasibility and, sigh, fairness. To be fair, I'm drunk on rum and tacos, so take this with a LOT of salt.
I propose that we seek to expand the Court from 9 current Justices to 15. With that in mind, let me break down some demographic information regarding the Court from some cursory research -
There have been 113 justices, and of the current 9 Justices (considering Kennedy as current for the next month) -
1. We have 6 men, 3 women (only 4 women have ever served...4!).
2. No current member publicly identifies as anything other than heterosexual.
3. 7 are white, 1 Latinx, and 1 black.
4. 5 currently identify as Catholic (13 historically), 3 as Jewish (8 historically), and Gorsuch was Catholic but identifies as Episcopalian.
5. 5 attended Harvard Law School, 3 Yale, and 1 Columbia.
6. Only two (Thomas and Kennedy) are not currently millionaires, and even then Thomas apparently has a million dollar+ book deal.
With that in mind, let's look at who has been unrepresented or underrepresented -
1. 4 women out of 113 total justices - O'Connor, Ginsburg, Kagan, Sotomayor.
2. 2 black Justices - Marshal and Thomas.
3. 1 Latinx Justice - Sotomayor.
4. No openly gay or otherwise gender fluid Justices.
5. No Asian, Native American, or Pacific Islander Justices.
6. No Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or openly atheist Justices.
Thus, I propose the following regarding 2020 and beyond -
1. Expand the Court to 15 Justices.
2. In order to maintain political feasability, agree to appoint 4 liberals and 2 conservatives, though maybe don't make this a public statement.
3. Favor under or unrepresented groups to achieve a Court that encompasses a more representative sample of the American population that would include LGBT members, members of at least Asian and Native descent as well as more representation from black and Latinx communities, members of Islam and other creeds, and other economic and educational circumstances.
4. Combine points 2 and 3; it should be feasible to find possible members that are, say, a conservative, non-Ivy, Muslim Justice or a gay, atheist, Asian Justice.
It would be a hard sell. No doubt about it. But looking at the historical demographics of the Court is simply disgusting. How do you have only 4 women or 2 black Justices in our entire history!? There's a necessity and possibility to sell the American public, at least a damned good part of it, to expand the Court to better represent a modern society.
That said, it'd never happen.
Oh yea, only 6 Justices have been foreign-born, and 3 of those were from the very early days where....duh. Do something there.
