Republicans built this anti-majoritarian court by exercising raw political power. Now those partisan justices have begun handing down partisan victories that conservatives have sought for years, dressed in the skimpiest fig leaf of constitutional law, that could not otherwise be won through persuasion or the usual political means because most Americans stand opposed to these policies. It will require the same tough-minded use of political power to undo it.

Alas, much of the Democratic leadership spent Friday sending outraged fundraising emails; Speaker Nancy Pelosi read a poem. It will take more than that. Democrats still control the White House and Congress. They can prioritize court expansion and reform now – and run on it this fall – or the current court will continue undoing public safety, the regulatory state, voting rights and reproductive health for years to come. If Justice Amy Coney Barrett serves to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s age, she will remain on the court until 2059. Democrats will need a vacancy, control of the White House and a majority in an increasingly anti-majoritarian Senate to ever confirm another justice. Court expansion must be considered a central piece of any plan to protect American traditions of majority rule.

This is not court packing. It is balancing a court that has already been packed. It is not done in service of any partisan agenda; majorities of all political stripes, in all states, oppose this court’s agenda on gerrymandering, abortion and guns. It would not suddenly turn the high court into just another partisan political institution. That ship has long sailed. Rather, it would admit that these decisions are political, not neutral wisdom handed down by non-partisan oracles with a direct line to Adams and Jefferson in the afterlife.