Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) voiced his support for expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices and lamented his defense of Clarence Thomas during the conservative justice’s confirmation in 1991. In an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press…
Page A5From§Eachthe early evening edition — 30 August 2026
Clyburn regrets defending Clarence Thomas, now says 13 justices is a pretty good number.
As it ran on the front
Jim Clyburn has had a change of heart, and give the man credit, he said so out loud. For years he stood behind Clarence Thomas, defended the man's seat on the bench through however many controversies a Congressman is expected to defend a sitting Justice through. Now Clyburn says he regrets it, and in the same breath tells The Hill that thirteen is 'a pretty good number' of justices for the Supreme Court to have.
Let's be fair to the institution here. The Supreme Court has held nine seats since 1869 — through wars, depressions, and one attempt by a sitting president to pack it that his own party voted down, and that number has never really been partisan, it's just tradition, it's — no, it has absolutely been partisan every single time somebody's tried to change it, including right now. Let's not pretend otherwise.…
…(cont) It is fair to ask why thirteen is the number Clyburn landed on, and it is fair to notice that thirteen would flip the current ideological math on the bench, and it is fair to say a man who spent years defending one Justice is now proposing to simply outnumber him instead. That's not reform, that's the same instinct — get the outcome you want out of the Court — wearing a different jersey. Nine held up for a century and a half because both parties, at various points, decided it wasn't worth being the one to break it. That restraint is the actual protection here, and it's not partisan to say so, it's — okay, everyone saying it right now has a partisan reason for saying it. Including me.
None of which makes Clyburn wrong that something is broken. It makes him honest about which lever he'd rather pull. He tried defending a seat. Now he wants to add four more. Both are ways of getting the Court you want without changing a single vote of the electorate that's supposed to put people there in the first place.
“Nine held up for a hundred fifty years because nobody wanted to be the one who broke it; now the guy who defended Thomas wants to just outvote him instead. Same game, new number.”
“Adding justices is a legitimate policy proposal, Congress has the power, plain as that. Though I'll grant it's — well it's court-packing, everybody knows what it is, but sure, legitimate.”
The receipts
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Sunday called for an expansion of the Supreme Court's nine justices to 13, calling that increase a "pretty good number." "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker asked Clyburn if he agreed with former Vice…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.