Buttigieg Proposes Court-Packing To Fix Supreme Court He Calls ‘Nakedly Partisan’

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg argued Sunday that the Supreme Court has become dangerously partisan — then proposed a fix that would require Congress to add six justices widely expected to lean in his own party’s favor, during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Buttigieg told host Kristen Welker that the court has come to look like a “nakedly partisan institution” and calling for six additional justices to be added to the current nine-member bench — a bigger expansion than he has previously floated.

“It has become a nakedly partisan institution,” he said. “And I want to be clear. The idea is not to just add justices for its own sake. The idea is to reform the institution, to make it less partisan.”

The comments extend a message Buttigieg has delivered repeatedly since at least July, when he told Fox News that public confidence in the court had fallen to what he called the lowest point in its history, and proposed a package of changes including term limits for justices and a “balanced bench” selection process meant to reduce political influence over appointments. At that time, Buttigieg said he favored expanding the court from nine seats to 13, a number he said should match what he called “the number of districts” in the federal system. In fact, the federal judiciary has 94 judicial districts; the number 13 refers to the appellate circuits, not districts — an error critics flagged after his July remarks.

Fix Congress. Reform the Supreme Court. End money in politics. We cannot be afraid to fight for big reforms.

Whether it’s paying more at the pump or struggling to afford a mortgage, kitchen-table problems will only be solvable when we deliver more accountability in government. pic.twitter.com/YodjxFkJVu

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) July 15, 2026

His Sunday figure of six additional seats, bringing the bench to 15, aligns instead with an academic proposal first advanced by law professors Daniel Epps and Ganesh Sitaraman, under which judges would be divided evenly between the parties with a final bloc chosen by consensus.

Buttigieg, widely viewed as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, has not said whether he would pursue court expansion as a policy priority if elected.