'If You Can Keep It': Reforming The Supreme Court, Part 2
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
In the last installment of our “If You Can Keep It” series, we discussed what those reforms might look like, from expanding the size of the bench, to restricting the shadow docket.
Our listeners had so many thoughts on whether and how to reform the court that we decided to return to that conversation to talk more about what’s possible and answer more questions.
So, what happens when the Supreme Court loses credibility among a large swath of the country? And how can the court get it back when partisanship on the bench has become the expectation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's been more than two weeks since the Supreme Court's decision to weaken the last key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, protected minority voters from discrimination in elections. |
| 0:19.5 | And that ruling invoked a wave of renewed calls to reform |
| 0:23.1 | the court. We discussed what those reforms might look like from expanding the bench to restricting |
| 0:28.3 | the shadow docket during the last installment of our weekly politics series, if you can keep it. |
| 0:32.9 | And we heard from so many of you. Regarding the Supreme Court, two things. |
| 0:38.3 | I do not think they should have lifetime appointments, and I do think they should be expanded. |
| 0:43.8 | To answer the question, if we have faith in the Supreme Court, answer is absolutely no. |
| 0:49.4 | What really bothers me is that they seem to abandon even the pretense of nonpartisan objectivity. |
| 0:56.0 | Numerous Supreme Court justices have lied under oath when they were being questioned |
| 1:00.4 | about what they were going to do, should they become Supreme Court justices, and did the |
| 1:05.5 | exact opposite of what they said they would do. They should be kicked off. Yeah, you all had so |
| 1:10.1 | many perspectives on whether and how to reform the Supreme Court that we would do. They should be kicked off. Yeah, you all had so many perspectives on whether and how |
| 1:12.4 | to reform the Supreme Court that we're returning to that conversation today, and the stakes for |
| 1:17.4 | democracy couldn't be higher. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to immediately finalize its |
| 1:23.2 | opinion on Louisiana v. Calais by passing its typical 32-day waiting period after a ruling. |
| 1:29.4 | Days later, Louisiana Senate approved a new congressional map that eliminates one of the state's two |
| 1:35.3 | majority black and democratic-leaning districts, giving Republicans an electoral advantage. |
| 1:40.8 | The court's decision also cleared the way for Alabama to use a map deemed racially |
| 1:45.2 | discriminatory by a lower court ruling, a ruling the Supreme Court upheld in 2023. |
| 1:50.7 | Meanwhile, the court has refused to let Virginia use a new congressional map that favors Democrats |
| 1:55.5 | and was approved by Virginia voters. The court said lawmakers didn't follow proper procedures when putting that |
| 2:02.4 | question on the ballot. This all comes as in-person primary voting started in Louisiana over the |
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