One year after the Supreme Court’s conservative justices handed down their decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and ended the federal constitutional right to abortion, there's hardly a day that goes by without a new, shocking story of the devastating ramifications the bans are having. Their ruling is harming real people — as they should have expected it would — and they did it anyway.
With a horrifying post-Roe v. Wade reality playing out across the country and scandal after scandal plaguing the Court itself, it’s clear that these justices cannot be trusted to protect the freedom and well-being of the American people. Something must change to protect our rights and restore faith in our democracy — and that something is the Court itself.
It’s time to expand the US Supreme Court and young people have the power to help pave the way to a judicial system that reflects the values of the majority of Americans.
With a string of recent controversies and a total disregard for our rights, it's no surprise that the Court has historically low approval ratings. After the decision in Dobbs was leaked, showing that they intended to overturn Roe, Gallup found that a mere quarter of Americans had faith in the Court and a poll conducted by NORC, a social research organization at the University of Chicago, found a jaw-droppingly low 18% of Americans said they had a great deal of confidence in the Court.
While conservatives caused our judiciary’s legitimacy crisis, we can’t and won’t rely on them to fix it. NARAL Pro-Choice America is proud to join the Just Majority: Democracy Demands A Fair And Ethical Court campaign alongside our progressive partners to call for Court reform, including Supreme Court expansion, during this pivotal moment in our nation’s history.
The vast majority of Americans continue to support abortion rights and access. Not only do 8 in 10 Americans believe that decisions about pregnancy should be made by the person who is pregnant, but they disapprove of the Court’s ruling in Dobbs by a two-to-one margin.
For the past several elections, young Americans have helped lead the charge at the ballot box, defining their generation as committed to reproductive freedom and accountability for the elected officials who are hostile to it. In an April 2023 poll, Harvard Kennedy School found that only a third of young Americans trust the Supreme Court to “do the right thing,” and the Court’s gutting of our fundamental rights has proven them correct. Recent youth turnout has sent a clear message of support for abortion rights, but Republicans and the judges they’ve appointed still disregard and defy the will of the majority. Why is the highest Court in the world’s oldest democracy making decisions so wildly at odds with popular opinion?
The GOP and its extremist allied groups are entirely to blame. For decades, they’ve worked hand in hand with anti-abortion activists to rig the game and win at all costs. They have utterly abandoned all pretense of representing the will of the majority, especially when it comes to reproductive freedom. Republicans celebrated Donald Trump's appointment of ultraconservative justices to the Supreme Court who had no business being there. Why would they intervene if it meant conservatives could continue to exert control through the Court for decades to come?
If the GOP-appointed and -confirmed federal judges have been a sledgehammer when it comes to chipping away at our most fundamental rights, then Donald Trump was a wrecking ball. The three Supreme Court justices he put on the bench have all but ensured a rightward slant in our judicial system for decades to come. In addition, his administration appointed an outsized number of right-wing extremists to the federal bench in just four years. The 226 judges he appointed flipped several appeals courts to a Republican-appointed majority.
Adding insult to injury, we’ve seen a flurry of ethics scandals involving right-wing justices come to light in recent months. From allegedly colluding with anti-choice activists to accepting millions of dollars in gifts from a GOP mega-donor, we believe the Court’s conservative bloc has clearly been bought. The American people are correct not to trust this Court to hand down fair and impartial decisions. And it’s no surprise that this Court doesn’t reflect the values of young Americans.
The Supreme Court’s anti-abortion majority — puppeteered by Republican mega-donors — poses an urgent threat to both reproductive freedom and our democracy. When young people woke up the day Roe was overturned, they had fewer rights and freedoms than their parents grew up with. Now, communities of color, people with low incomes, and young people are bearing the brunt of the extremist abortion bans sweeping the country.
The good news is you can help mend the GOP’s damage to our courts. By harnessing our collective power, we can deliver congressional majorities to pass legislation like the Judiciary Act proposed by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). Adding four justices, as outlined in the bill, will offer immediate relief to the crisis our highest Court faces today. If we don’t take action now, legal scholars don’t anticipate a Democratic-appointed majority on the Supreme Court until the 2060s.
The American public has no faith in this Court. Reproductive freedom voters are disgusted, they’re angry, and they are mobilizing. Young Americans in particular reject the Supreme Court’s fleecing of the public will in recent decisions on abortion, voting rights, and more. The government we steward today will be our legacy for future generations.
Do we want to leave behind a system that so defiantly rejects self-determination? Or will we pass down a judiciary that embodies the democratic values that America has always aspired to, but never quite reached? It’s up to us to decide.
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