WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general and elected officials are striving to amend the U.S. Constitution so that no more than nine judges can sit on the U.S. Supreme Court at any given time. However, House Democrats last week failed to support the measure.
Formed in 2019, the coalition "Keep Nine" aims to preserve the independence of the Supreme Court and protect it from partisan overreach.
“We urge members of Congress, state, and federal officials and candidates in both parties to endorse it because the constitution is silent on the size of the Supreme court,” said Paul Summers, former Republican Attorney General of Tennessee.
The Keep Nine amendment has just 13 words, which state that "The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices," but so far no Democrat in the 117th Congress has co-sponsored the amendment despite it first being introduced in Congress by a Democrat in 2020, according to Summers.
“Few people really appreciate how viable the court-packing issue is in our constitutional Republic," he said.
Summers co-chairs the coalition with Steve Rosenthal, former Democrat Attorney General of Virginia.
“Without an amendment defining the number of justices, a future Congress and U.S. President could change that number for political advantage,” Summers said. “This strategy is commonly known as court packing.”
The coalition came about out of concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court will one day be packed with a plethora of judges much like in Venezuela.
“They have 32 members on their Supreme Court,” Summers told Legal Newsline. “We know whether you are a Democrat or Republican, if you increase the members of the Supreme Court, then what's going to happen about 10 years later when the opposite party is in power? Are they going to increase it as well? So, the next thing you know we would be like Venezuela. Let's don't get like that.”
Venezuela’s economy collapsed and millions of Venezuelans have left the country as refugees and migrants because they are in need of meals and opportunity, according to media reports.
“In 1789, when the U.S. Constitution was ratified, there were six justices on the Supreme Court and that has increased or decreased from five to a maximum of 10 until 1869,” Summers added. “In 1869, it was reduced to nine and it has been nine ever since for the last 153 years.”
Although keeping nine judges on the U.S. Supreme Court would benefit both parties, according to Summers, Democrats voted against a motion presented by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and the House Republican Leadership last week.
“Anytime you have a constitutional amendment, you've got to have two-thirds of the House and two-thirds of the Senate,” he said. “We're not close to that right now, but bear in mind that it took about one hundred years since the constitution was finally ratified for women to get the right to vote. I think that was worth it.”