Retired Federal Judge Criticizes Supreme Court Reform Proposals, Emphasizes Institutional Integrity

Retired U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith has voiced his skepticism regarding recent initiatives to reform the U.S. Supreme Court. In an interview with the National Law Journal, Griffith, who served 15 years on the appellate court, shared his concerns about altering the composition of the nation’s highest court despite his personal disagreements with some of its decisions. “They [the justices] overturned me a couple times and I thought they were wrong,” said Griffith. “But that doesn’t mean that my reaction to that ought to be to change the composition of the court.” Now a lecturer at Harvard Law School and special counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth, he emphasized the need for the legal community to defend the institution of the Supreme Court, especially amid record-low public approval numbers.