Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) used an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to level a striking accusation at the Supreme Court, claiming the justices are moving toward reviving elements of the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling.
The South Carolina Democrat argued that recent actions by the current court reflect an effort to return to the logic of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s majority opinion, which infamously declared that Black people “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
Clyburn made the comments while defending his support for expanding the number of seats on the nation’s highest court.
“OK, well, since we are on the topic of the court, let’s speak more broadly about it,” moderator Kristen Welker said. “Former Vice President Kamala Harris shares some of your criticisms. Clearly, she’s called for expanding the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13. Do you support adding four more seats to the Supreme Court, Congressman?”
Clyburn replied, “Yes, I do. I think that we are in a position now that calls for some significant actions taken by the Congress. And we ought to expand. And 13 is a pretty good number. A baker’s dozen would be a good number to have on the court. And I would hope we would get people on the court who will follow the constitutional underpinnings of this great nation of ours. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments have been interpreted different ways over the years. And we had in the Warren Court an interpretation of those amendments that I thought would be set for the future of the country. We have now a Supreme Court that has decided to reverse course and take this country back, I say, to those rulings of Justice Taney that said that no black man has any rights that a white man must respect.”
“That was the Supreme Court that made that decision,” he added. “I hope that Clarence Thomas would follow the modern underpinnings of that constitution of ours. But he has not done so. In fact, he has decided to go all the way from an angry leftist to a very angry rightist.”
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