DSA Midterm Platform Includes Federal Court Expansion Proposal
The Democratic Socialists of America's published 2026 midterm agenda places Supreme Court restructuring alongside other institutional changes, giving voters a documented policy benchmark to...
The Democratic Socialists of America published a 2026 midterm platform that includes a proposal to expand the size of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a review of the document cited by the Washington Examiner on October 21, 2026. Washington Examiner
Court expansion, sometimes called court packing, would require an act of Congress. Under 28 U.S.C. Section 1, the size of the Supreme Court is set by statute, not by the Constitution. Congress has changed the number of justices seven times in U.S. History, most recently in 1869, when it was fixed at nine. Any legislation to alter that number would require a majority in the House, 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster under current rules, or a simple majority if the filibuster were first eliminated, and a presidential signature.
The DSA is an independent political organization, not a formal wing of the Democratic Party. Its candidates run in Democratic primaries in most jurisdictions and, if successful, appear on the general election ballot as Democrats. As of the 2024 election cycle, the DSA's national electoral committee tracked roughly 20 DSA-endorsed candidates holding federal, state, or local office, according to the organization's own published electoral scorecard.
The proposal arrives ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, in which all 435 House seats and 34 Senate seats are on the ballot. Control of the House and Senate will determine the legislative agenda for the final two years of the current presidential term.
Court expansion proposals have appeared in Democratic Party policy debates before. In 2021, a group of House and Senate Democrats introduced the Judiciary Act of 2021, H.R. 2584, which would have increased the Supreme Court from nine to thirteen justices. The bill did not receive a floor vote in either chamber. Its sponsors included Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), according to the congressional record.
Republican-aligned groups have also proposed structural changes to the federal judiciary. The Convention of States project, backed by donors including those connected to the Republican Governors Association, has advocated for term limits on federal judges, which would similarly require a constitutional amendment or legislation. Proposals to create a code of conduct for Supreme Court justices passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote in 2023 but did not reach the Senate floor, per the congressional record.
The DSA platform document, as described in the Washington Examiner report, also includes positions on housing, labor, and healthcare. The full text of the DSA's 2026 platform is publicly available on the organization's website. The Congressional Times has not independently verified every plank cited in the Examiner's summary and will update this report upon review of the primary document.
For voters seeking to assess how DSA-backed candidates align with the platform, the DSA's national electoral committee publishes endorsement lists on its website. Candidate financial disclosures, including whether any DSA-endorsed federal candidates have received DSA-affiliated PAC contributions, are searchable through the FEC's public database at fec.gov.
Several questions remain unanswered by available public records. It is not known which, if any, DSA-endorsed candidates running in 2026 have explicitly adopted the court expansion plank. Candidate position statements, available through official campaign websites and FEC-registered committee filings, would be the primary source to answer that question. It is also not known whether any sitting member of Congress who received a DSA endorsement has introduced companion legislation in the current 119th Congress. A search of the congressional record at congress.gov would reveal any such bill.
The midterm elections are scheduled for November 3, 2026. Final candidate filing deadlines and ballot compositions vary by state and are maintained by each state's secretary of state office.