Democrats could dust off their Supreme Court reform plans after winning the House and Senate

Washington- After years of calling for Supreme Court reforms following blockbuster rulings on abortion, presidential power and right to voteDemocrats may be ready to advance their court-focused plans after taking control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections.

Democrats are expected to hold at least 54 seats in the Senate and at least 250 deputies in the Chambergiving them the opportunity to pass legislation that had no chance of advancing in the GOP-led Congress.

While Democrats have yet to reveal their legislative priorities for the next Congress, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to be elected president in January, has indicated he has the Supreme Court on his mind.

“We must root out price corruption, clean up the mess at the Supreme Court, and ban members of Congress from trading in stocks,” he wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats formally announcing his candidacy for the president’s gavel. “Responsibility begins at home.”

Jeffries told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in August that “dramatic” reform of the Supreme Court was needed, and said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who will likely lead the House Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, would take the helm. A spokesperson for Raskin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Over the years, Democrats have proposed various measures aimed at reshaping the Supreme Court — from limiting justices’ terms to establishing new ethics rules to adding seats.

During the first two years of the Biden administration, when Democrats last controlled Congress, the House approved legislation that would have imposed ethics requirements on Supreme Court justices. But the measure is blocked in the Senate.

Then-President Joe Biden created a commission to study proposals to reform the high court, but the panel did not recommend structural changes and instead laid out the arguments for and against potential changes.

But calls for Supreme Court reforms have increased since Democrats’ last term, especially as the Court’s conservative majority voted in favor of Supreme Court reform. overturned long standing previous And extended executive power.

With Democrats now holding a majority in the House, lawmakers could pass legislation mandating changes to the high court. However, these plans are unlikely to be approved in the Senate, where most bills require 60 votes to advance. Democrats will control between 54 and 56 seats. And even if the judicial reform measures gain approval from both houses of Congress, it is unclear whether Mr. Trump would sign them into law.

Here are some of the proposals that Democrats could take up in the next Congress:

Ethical reforms

Legislative efforts to force the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct gained momentum in 2023, after ProPublica published a series of articles on The Travels of Justice Clarence Thomas with a wealthy Republican donor that were omitted from his financial disclosures.

In the wake of these revelations, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced legislation it would require the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics and implement procedures to handle complaints of misconduct. But the proposal from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, died before the full Senate.

Whitehouse reintroduced the proposal in May 2025. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat, introduced companion legislation in the House.

Whitehouse and Johnson’s legislation would also require the Supreme Court to establish rules for the disclosure of gifts, income or reimbursements, including a requirement that parties to a case or people filing friend-of-the-court briefs must disclose any gifts to the justices.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Daniel Goldman of New York also introduced plans that would require the Supreme Court to create an internal ethics advisory office and an investigative advisory office. The investigating attorney would review and investigate ethics complaints against judges.

A measure by Maryland’s Raskin and New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would ban federal judges and Supreme Court justices from receiving gifts worth more than $50.

The Supreme Court made set your own code of conduct in place in November 2023, but the lack of an enforcement mechanism has led to calls for Congress to intervene.

Beyond the Supreme Court, a Democratic-led Congress could also investigate complaints of misconduct by federal lower court judges that have recently become public, said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, which advocates for reforms to the Supreme Court and lower courts.

Some federal judges have been accused of mistreating their clerks. Others have been investigated for alleged misconduct.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Georgia received a private reprimand after an investigation found she had sex with a police officer in her chambers. Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia filed articles of impeachment against her.

U.S. District Judge Ada Brown in Texas is facing legal proceedings after she was accused of using racial slurs against a lawyer, judges and court staff, and recusing herself from dozens of cases without explanation or for “unusual” reasons.

“There are 2,400 federal judges, so there are going to be a few bad apples, but if we’re going to talk about cleaning up the government, we can’t leave out the third branch,” Roth said.

Congressional Democrats could also pass legislation expanding workplace discrimination and harassment laws to cover the judiciary, an idea that has already gained bipartisan support, and ban judges and Supreme Court justices from trading stocks and using prediction markets, Roth said.

“The bigger issue is really about the lower courts, it’s about resetting the rules of the road and making it clear that while the focus may have been on the Supreme Court over the last three years, the lower courts really should not be immune from this anti-corruption campaign,” he said.

Term limits

Article III of the Constitution states that Supreme Court justices and lower court judges hold their seats “during good behavior”, which has been interpreted to mean that the justices are appointed for life.

But Democrats in Congress have argued that judges should be subject to term limits and have introduced proposals establishing those rules through laws and constitutional amendments.

Several bills introduced in the House would set an 18-year maximum term for judges and establish regular appointments in certain years of the president’s term.

Under one of the proposed constitutional amendments, introduced by Maryland Democratic Rep. Johnny Olszewski, sitting judges who have served on the court for more than 18 years would have to retire. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Thomas have all served more than 18 years.

One of the term limits plans comes from a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Tom Barrett of Michigan. His proposed constitutional amendment would limit the terms of office of members of the Supreme Court and lower courts to 20 years.

Barrett lost his seat for his mid-term re-election on Tuesday.

To amend the Constitution, Congress must pass a joint resolution with the support of two-thirds of the House and Senate. Then, the proposal must be ratified by three-quarters of the States, or 38 or 50 States.

Expand the Supreme Court

The Constitution does not fix the number of judges on the Supreme Court, and over the course of the country’s history the number of members of the High Court has changed six times, from a minimum of six judges to a maximum of 10. There have been nine judges since 1869.

But there has been a wave of calls from some Democrats for an expansion of the Supreme Court, particularly in the wake of controversial rulings on abortion, regulatory authority and presidential power.

One bill, introduced this year by Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, would increase the number of seats on the Supreme Court from nine to 13. Previous proposals from Democrats in the House and Senate would also add four seats to the high court.