Longtime Democratic power broker Rep. James Clyburn called Sunday for Congress to expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Clyburn said he agreed with former Vice President Kamala Harris’s earlier suggestion to consider enlarging the court. “I think 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, it would be a good number to have on the court,” he said. Adding four seats would give a future Democratic Congress and White House the ability to reshape the court’s ideological balance.

Clyburn sharply criticized the current conservative majority and singled out Justice Clarence Thomas. He accused the court of reversing course and returning the country to the era of Justice Roger Taney, author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision. Of Thomas, he said, “I had hoped that Clarence Thomas would follow the modern underpinnings of that Constitution of ours, but he has not done so. In fact, he decided to go all the way from an angry leftist to a very angry rightist.”

The remarks mark a sharp reversal. Clyburn supported Thomas’s 1991 nomination and at the time described him as a “good friend.” Asked whether he still stood by that support, Clyburn replied that he “absolutely” did not, adding that he had “no idea that Clarence Thomas would rebel… against his own background and experiences.”

Clyburn’s proposal joins earlier Democratic calls. Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsed expansion in a 2021 op-ed, and Sen. Ed Markey and other Democrats have backed legislation to increase the number of justices; those efforts have not become law. After his 2024 reelection defeat, former President Joe Biden proposed term limits, a binding ethics code, and a constitutional amendment on presidential immunity.

Republicans have consistently opposed such measures, describing them as attempts to pack the court and shift its ideological balance. Any expansion would require legislation passed by Congress and signed by the president.