House Protects Constitutional Right to Unlimited Supreme Court Justices
The House preserved America’s constitutional right to unlimited Supreme Court justices Wednesday, rejecting an amendment that would have frozen the nation’s highest court at nine members and deprived future congressional majorities of emergency seating whenever existing rulings became emotionally inconvenient. The Republican-backed measure, introduced by Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, received 212 votes to 206 but fell short of the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. All but one Democrat opposed the proposal, safeguarding Congress’s traditional power to treat judicial independence as a subscription plan that can be upgraded after elections.
President Donald Trump praised the amendment’s defeat, explaining that nine justices is an embarrassingly small number for a country with more than 300 million potential constitutional experts. “Nine is tiny, frankly, and everybody knows it,” Trump said. “We could have 50, maybe 500, maybe one justice for every American, and each one would agree completely with the person who appointed them. That would be perfect justice, because nobody would ever lose a case, especially me.” House Speaker Mike Johnson had argued that fixing the court at one chief justice and eight associate justices would protect its integrity. Opponents responded that integrity is an obsolete staffing model maintained chiefly by people whose preferred nominees already hold a majority.
Rep. Jamie Raskin welcomed the amendment’s failure as a victory for institutional flexibility, noting that the Constitution does not specify the court’s size and therefore plainly intended it to function like an expandable conference table. Under the emerging congressional doctrine, lawmakers may increase the bench to 435 seats, allowing every House member to keep a personal justice near the office printer for rapid injunctions, favorable dissents and occasional help with the toner. Financial analysts also projected strong growth in robes, gavels and lifetime federal employment as “Supreme Court justice” becomes the nation’s largest patronage profession. The House has now confirmed that the Supreme Court contains exactly as many justices as the governing party needs.
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