House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who could become speaker if Democrats win the majority in November, is pushing a bold agenda to alter American institutions.
At a convention for Black journalists in Atlanta on Thursday, the New York congressman called for changes to election laws and to the operations of the Supreme Court and Senate.
“There’s a variety of different options that are on the table, and I think that we can’t foreclose any single one of them,” he said of Supreme Court changes.
Mr. Jeffries has supported 18-year term limits for justices. He said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, would spearhead talks on altering the high court. Mr. Raskin has supported expanding it with additional justices.
Mr. Jeffries alleged that the “conservative, right-wing majority on the Supreme Court has become basically a subsidiary of the MAGA Republican Party,” citing its reinterpretation of the Voting Rights Act in April that allowed for pro-Republican redistricting in the South.
Although the Supreme Court has expanded some of President Trump’s powers over immigration and the federal government, it has also served as a check on the administration.
The court rejected Mr. Trump’s use of a 1970s sanctions law to impose tariffs, reaffirmed birthright citizenship for individuals born in the U.S. and blocked an attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Also at the convention, Mr. Jeffries said Democrats remain committed to passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and that the party would overhaul congressional procedures to do so.
The bill would extend the attorney general’s powers over elections and would require states to seek federal clearance for redistricting, cleaning voting rolls and strengthening voter ID requirements.
He slammed former Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona for having voted in 2022 against overriding the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass the bill.
They were the only two members of the Democratic caucus to do so.
“That was a mistake,” Mr. Jeffries said. “What we’ve seen from the other side is when they have power, they use it. And so I think one of the lessons has to be, when we have the ability to move forward and get meaningful things done, we’ve got to use it.”
Mr. Jeffries added that the “filibuster is a relic of the past and needs to be reformed.”
As a member of the House, he has no direct influence on Senate rules.
Mr. Trump has called on Republicans to terminate the Senate’s filibuster to enact changes to election law, pass annual funding bills and ban transgender procedures for minors, arguing Democrats will kill the filibuster if they gain control of the upper chamber.
Senate Republicans have largely rejected calls to undo the filibuster.
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