WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday voted down a proposed constitutional amendment to maintain the Supreme Court at 9 seats, with the measure falling wanting the two-thirds majority wanted to move.
The vote was 212-206. All however one Democrat voted in opposition to it, as openness throughout the occasion to broaden the excessive court docket by 4 seats grows.
The joint resolution, provided by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., requires amending the Constitution to say: “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices consisting of one chief justice and eight associate justices.”
The workplace of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., inspired lawmakers to vote “no,” saying the amendment would take away an influence meant for Congress and do nothing to handle the “affordability crisis” below President Donald Trump.
“This proposed constitutional amendment would permanently fix the number of Supreme Court justices at nine, stripping Congress of yet another constitutional authority that is meant to be controlled by the American people’s representatives,” Clark’s workplace wrote to lawmakers Wednesday forward of the vote.
The Constitution doesn’t specify the size of the Supreme Court; it defers to Congress on that matter. The Judiciary Act of 1789 established six justices. The size of the court docket modified a half-dozen instances over the following century, each shrinking and increasing to a excessive of 10 seats, earlier than it was set in 1869 at 9 seats, the place it has remained since.
The vote on the GOP measure isn’t an ideal breakdown of help for increasing the Supreme Court, as many Democrats haven’t endorsed the concept. But the trigger has migrated from the far left to the Democratic mainstream in recent times, fueled by choices from the 6-3 conservative majority that overturned Roe v. Wade, weakened the Voting Rights Act and granted Trump immunity for strikes deemed official acts.
“What was once a fairly dramatic and fringe idea has now become mainstream because of how fed up the country has become with the [Chief Justice John] Roberts majority,” mentioned Josh Orton, president of the progressive judicial group Demand Justice, which has been pushing for court docket growth since 2020.
“People understand this is now an emergency,” he added. “They see the Roberts majority as more corrupt, more friendly to corporate power and to the Trump administration and more antidemocratic.”
Along with a measure denouncing socialism, the Supreme Court decision was a part of a collection of messaging votes House Republican leaders set as much as make the case in opposition to Democrats within the 2026 midterm elections.
“Give House Democrats an ounce of power, and they’ll use every bit of it to fundamentally transform America into an unrecognizable socialist hellscape,” mentioned Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the House Republicans’ marketing campaign arm.
Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina was the one Democrat who voted Wednesday with all Republicans in help of the proposed amendment. Rep. Kevin Kiley, an unbiased from California who caucuses with Republicans, voted in opposition to it.
Proposed constitutional amendments want two-thirds help in each the House and the Senate to begin the ratification course of.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., mentioned Republicans will maintain 9 seats on the court docket in the event that they keep in cost.
“Now you’ve heard the Democrat Socialists of America, the communist socialists and Democrat Party, who are taking the party over,” he informed reporters Tuesday.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a former House majority whip and an influential determine contained in the occasion, endorsed the concept of increasing the court docket to 13 seats Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“I think that we are in a position now that calls for some significant actions taken by the Congress, and we ought to expand,” Clyburn mentioned. “Thirteen is a pretty good number. A baker’s dozen would be a good number to have on the court. And I would hope we would get people on the court who will follow the constitutional underpinnings of this great nation of ours.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, voiced some help for the concept of including Supreme Court seats, saying this summer: “We need to revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices.”
Orton mentioned will probably be a difficulty going into the 2028 presidential race.
“We intend to continue building the case for major Supreme Court reform through the 2028 election cycle,” Orton mentioned, dismissing “passive” Democrats who oppose the concept for worry that Republicans would reply in sort and add extra seats.
“You can be damn sure that if there had been a long-standing progressive majority on the court, Republicans would have already voted to expand it,” he mentioned. “This has to happen in the first two years of the next Democratic administration.”