Why the Supreme Court ended up with nine justices

[Bayard]

Why the Supreme Court ended up with nine justices—and how that could change

The U.S. Supreme Court changed size seven times in its first 80 years, from as few as five justices to as many as 10. Now, some argue it’s time to revisit the issue.

NINE JUSTICES MAKE up the U.S. Supreme Court: one chief justice and eight associate justices. But it hasn’t always been this way. For the first 80 years of its existence, the Supreme Court fluctuated in size from as few as five to as many as 10 before settling at the current number in 1869. Here’s how the court ended up with nine justices—and how that could change.

Constitutional foundations
When the Founding Fathers set out to establish the U.S. Supreme Court at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, they kept the details vague. There are no constitutional requirements for age, experience, or citizenship of Supreme Court justices, nor did the Constitution establish how many justices would make up the court. Instead, it left many of the details up to Congress and the president.

Two years later, the first Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789—signed into law by George Washington on September 24, 1789—which established a court of six justices responsible for ensuring the constitutionality of laws enacted by the executive and legislative branches.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/09/why-us-supreme-court-nine-justices/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=History_20200921&rid=2D7EBD8232363870D75E126868635ACF


Very informative article that covers the Court's inception, to where it is today under trump, and what could happen.

[Sherman A1]

1. Yup,

There is NO magic number.

[33taw]

2. Can it be decreased as well as increased?

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Yes.

But since it's a lifetime appointment, any decrease means a vacant seat will just remain vacant.

So, if Democrats expand to, say, 11 seats, and appoint two new justices, but Republicans take control of both the House & Senate, as well as the White House, and pass a law decreasing the size of the court to 9, it will remain at 11 until a justice retires or dies.

[dem4decades]

4. Let's face it, if we go to 13, there has to be 52 states, 104 Senators. Time to kill the beast.

And the beast is white male rule.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Absolutely but we must be prepared for the Republicans to do the exact same.

And they will.

Then it will become a lose-lose situation where we're adding more and more seats to the court every time a party takes over both the House, Senate and the Presidency.

Just adding Puerto Rico and DC is not going to give the Democrats a forever majority. In fact, this idea that Puerto Rico is going to easily elect two Democrats is presumptuous. Currently the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, the territory's non-voting member of Congress (elected statewide since they do not have congressional districts) is a Trump supporting Republican. In fact, over the last 15 years, Republicans have held this seat for seven of 'em (two of the last three Resident Commissioners have been Republican, or aligned with the GOP nationally).

DC will absolutely give 'em two Democratic senators every time.

But if Democrats move on expanding the courts, they've got to understand they likely will not stay in power forever and who knows what the GOP will do when they take control again. Is it worth it? Possibly.

[dem4decades]

6. I guess the Resident Commissioner likes paper towels.