Washington, D.C.—The civil rights organization American Atheists is calling on Congress to pass the Judiciary Act of 2021, introduced today by Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY17). This important legislation would expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices.
In response to the introduction of this bill, Alison Gill, Vice President for Legal and Policy at American Atheists, released the following statement:
The current Supreme Court has been stacked with Christian nationalist justices who are dangerously out of step with the American people. With the addition of Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land has increasingly made decisions based on their personal religious ideology rather than precedent or the plain language of the Constitution.
The Court’s majority seems intent on giving conservative Christians special privileges, to which religious minorities and atheists do not have access. We must not allow one group to dominate all others and create a two-class system of society based on religion.
The Judiciary Act of 2021 is an important first step toward needed reform of the federal judiciary. It will help ensure that ideological capture of the Court does not overturn decades of precedent and will restore balance to the Supreme Court.
