Sanders calls for more justices like Sotomayor, Ginsburg after Buttigieg says he’d like to see more like Kennedy

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded Thursday to fellow 2020 presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg saying a proposed expansion of the Supreme Court could involve more justices like ex-Justice Anthony Kennedy, saying he would rather see justices in the mold of Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., made the comments in an interview with Cosmopolitan, telling the magazine he was open to expanding the Supreme Court to 15 justices and including five nonpartisan justices who could only be seated if the other 10 agreed. This plan would incorporate “justices who think for themselves … like Justice Kennedy or Justice [David] Souter,” he said.{mosads}

The comment was picked up by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Brian Tashman, who noted that Kennedy, a swing-vote who retired from the high court in 2018, ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s travel ban and against public-sector labor unions’ right to collect fees from nonmembers.

Sanders, however, responded on Twitter that he’d rather see more reliably liberal justices join the court.

Interesting, I’d like more justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. https://t.co/zfv9U0Liut

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 24, 2019

Buttigieg spokesman Sean Savett, pushed back Thursday afternoon on the original characterizations of his remarks, saying “This tweet ignores his comments in the interview, in which he said his appointments would ‘definitely be people who share my values,’ and how depoliticizing SCOTUS is personal to him because his marriage exists by a single vote on the court.”

“To be clear: Pete has consistently said he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court who share his progressive values. Kennedy was not such a justice,” Savett added.

Sanders and Buttigieg have largely avoided direct conflict during their respective campaigns, though Buttigieg has attempted to position himself as a more-moderate alternative to Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), particularly their progressive proposals on health care and taxation.

Sanders said in June that he “do[es] not believe in packing the court” but added, “I do believe constitutionally we have the power to rotate judges to other courts and that brings in new blood into the Supreme Court.”

—Updated at 3:58 p.m.