Hakeem Jeffries stood in front of cameras last month and called the Supreme Court "illegitimate."
Congress responded by putting a simple question to every Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
What every single one of them did next should end any debate about what Democrats plan to do with power.
Democrats Block the One Vote That Would Have Protected Your Supreme Court
The House Judiciary Committee voted 15 to 8 Wednesday on HJR 1, a constitutional amendment that would lock the Supreme Court at nine justices.
Every Republican voted yes.
Zero Democrats did.
The amendment would write into the Constitution what has been true since 1869: nine justices on the Supreme Court.
That's it.
The Keep Nine Coalition – a bipartisan group of former state attorneys general and grassroots organizations that has pushed this amendment for years – warned ahead of the vote that a successful court-packing effort by either party would "unleash a destructive cycle of revenge Court packing that would undermine the independence of the Supreme Court we depend on to protect every one of our constitutional rights."
Coalition Director Roman Buhler put the stakes plainly: "In the next few years Americans will make a choice, to preserve or to destroy the independence of our Supreme Court. That choice will have a profound impact on the future of our nation."
Every Democrat heard that.
Every Democrat voted no.
Rep. Harriet Hageman, responding to the vote, called demanding to blow up the Supreme Court every time justices rule the wrong way "a totalitarian, despotic way to manage our judicial system."
She's right – and the history proves it.
FDR Tried This. His Own Party Stopped Him.
Franklin Roosevelt tried this exact scheme in 1937.
FDR had just won 46 of 48 states in the 1936 election and decided his mandate entitled him to a compliant Supreme Court.
He proposed expanding the bench to 15 justices – enough new Roosevelt-friendly picks to drown out the conservatives blocking his New Deal agenda.
His own Democrat-controlled Senate killed it.
The Judiciary Committee sent the plan to the full Senate floor with a scathing negative recommendation.
Even Democrats then understood that turning the Supreme Court into a political weapon destroys the institution.
Democrats in 2026 have no such restraint.
Jeffries called the Court "illegitimate" after the Louisiana v. Callais ruling – a 6-3 decision that struck down racial gerrymandering and told states they cannot draw congressional maps based on race to guarantee outcomes for specific candidates.
In plain English: the Court ruled that colorblind elections are the law of the land.
Jeffries responded by threatening to dismantle the institution that made that call.
He wasn't upset about legal reasoning.
He was upset that Democrats can no longer rig district maps to protect their seats.
Democrats Already Told You What They Plan to Do With Power
Here is what Wednesday's vote actually means.
This amendment requires two-thirds support from both chambers of Congress and three-quarters of the states to ratify – meaning Democrats will need to vote for it on the House floor for it to ever pass.
They just showed you how that vote will go.
Buhler wasn't being dramatic when he framed the coming choice as binary: preserve or destroy the independence of the Supreme Court.
That choice arrives in November.
Democrats are already drawing up the court they plan to build the day after they flip the House – a bench stacked with activists whose job isn't to interpret the Constitution but to reverse every ruling the left doesn't like.
FDR's court-packing plan collapsed because his own party had a spine.
Today's Democrat Party does not.
Every single one of them just told you exactly what they intend to do with power.
Sources:
- Shawn Fleetwood, "Not A Single House Judiciary Dem Supports Amendment Keeping SCOTUS At 9 Justices," The Federalist, June 3, 2026.
- Shawn Fleetwood, "As Dems Renew Court-Packing Scheme, Activists Push 'Keep Nine' Amendment To Protect SCOTUS," The Federalist, June 3, 2026.
- Shawn Fleetwood, "Dems Revive Court-Packing Threats After Being Told They Can't Do Racist Gerrymandering," The Federalist, May 1, 2026.
- Jonathan Turley, "Calling the Court Illegitimate Is the Left's Latest Assault on the Constitution," Fox News, May 1, 2026.
- Kerry Byrne, "On This Day in History, FDR's Effort to Pack the Supreme Court Failed Badly," Fox News, July 22, 2022.
