Kansas Senator Jerry Moran is voicing opposition to a proposal from Democratic leaders to expand the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 justices to 13.   Moran called the proposal “foolish” and he said it’s a transparent ploy for power.

Speaking on the Senate floor, the Republican senator said an expansion of the court would undermine public trust in the fair application of the law, and it would delegitimize the highest court in the land.     Moran said polls have shown that a majority of the public approves of the job the Supreme Court has done.   He said if the public sees the justices or any judge as politicians in robes, “the public’s confidence in the courts and the rule of law itself can only be diminished, diminishing the court’s power including the court’s power to act as a check on other branches of government.

Moran said Republicans have not tried to expand the Court “because the Supreme Court should not serve as another legislative body.  That is our job, a job we need to do much better than we do today, so that more than one third of the American people can place their confidence in us as we pass laws.”

Moran said the checks and balances of the Constitution are working, and he is urging Democratic leaders to have the same faith in these “constitutional guardrails” and “to believe that we can work together on behalf of the Americans we serve without resorting to acts that will damage us all.”