Thread by @MondaireJones

It’s not unprecedented for Congress to adjust the size of the Supreme Court to defeat white supremacy. We’ve done it three times before.

Here are some examples from our nation’s First Reconstruction. 🧵🧵

https://twitter.com/mondairejones/status/1383789851657392133

The year was 1861.

The Supreme Court was run by white supremacists who decided Dred Scott.

President Lincoln warned that if Congress didn’t check the Court, “the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.”

In 1863, Congress answered Lincoln’s call — expanding the Court.

Then in 1866, after Lincoln’s assassination, the white supremacist Andrew Johnson was President. A seat on the Court sat empty.

If Johnson filled it, the Court could have halted Reconstruction.

So Congress shrank the Court from 10 justices to 7, and Johnson never filled a seat.

In 1869, Ulysses S. Grant succeeded Johnson. 

Grant strongly supported Reconstruction.

So Congress once again expanded the Court, to its current nine justices.

Here’s why this matters.

On three separate occasions, Congress changed the size of the Supreme Court to help defeat white supremacy.

Today's far-right majority has been reviving Jim Crow. We must learn from history and do what it takes to stop them.

We must #ExpandTheCourt.