Sen. Duckworth Says She Could Approve of Supreme Court Expansion, But Not Now

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said she is not ready to back the expansion of the Supreme Court. At least not yet.

"I think I’m not opposed to court expansion, but I’m not certainly there where I would support it at this point in time," the senator said on Sunday in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."

She noted fellow Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is focused on confirming qualified federal judges who can later be "elevated" to positions on the Supreme Court, which currently holds a 6-3 conservative-leaning majority.

"I think what we need to do is what we’re continuing to do, and my senior senator from Illinois, Sen. Durbin, is doing a great job of confirming justices to all of the various levels of federal benches so that we have folks in place who can be elevated to the Supreme Court who are not going to be the activist judges like Neil Gorsuch," Duckworth said.

The Supreme Court has earned the ire of Democrats with a number of recent controversial decisions, from overturning Roe v. Wade to gutting affirmative action policies on college campuses to blocking President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan.

Duckworth has been one of the more vocal Democratic critics criticizing the Supreme Court for these rulings.

Some Democrats have pushed for an expansion of the court, but others, including the president, have warned against it, saying it could only further politicize the bench.

"I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that’s not healthy," he said last month.