If you’re like me, you get a sick feeling any time a major case goes to the Supreme Court. It wasn’t always this way. The Supremes were often wrong, but on many of the big cases, they got it right. I stopped thinking that after the one-two punch of Dobbs and the Immunity Impunity decision. Dobbs was not unexpected BUT it was broader and more brazen than expected because of its author, Sam the Sham Alito.
There are two justices whose current judicial philosophy boils down to: Give the Donald what wants. Justices Alito and Thomas might as well wear MAGA caps on the bench. It’s the only thing that explains their dissents on the birthright citizenship and mail voting cases. The other Republican justices occasionally vote against Trump but Justice Bro DBA Brett Kavanaugh keeps trying to placate the guy who appointed him with weasley concurrences. Nobody likes a weasel, dude.
This overt corruption has led me to conclude that SCOTUS reform should be atop Democrats’ agenda when next we have the trifecta. There are many ideas floating around including term and age limits, which could require amending the constitution. That’s why those are long-term solutions; the court needs an immediate fix, which can only come by expanding the number of justices. Rep. Jim Clyburn recently suggested 13 to match the number of federal judicial circuits. I concur with my distinguished friend from the Palmetto State, lucky 13 it is.
9 is not a magic number. The number of justices has changed many times over the years before landing on number 9, number 9, number 9. Was John Lennon on to something? Discuss amongst yourselves.
It’s time for a history lesson:
The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the first Supreme Court, with six Justices. “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the supreme court of the United States shall consist of a chief justice and five associate justices, any four of whom shall be a quorum, and shall hold annually at the seat of government two sessions, the one commencing the first Monday of February, and the other the first Monday of August,” the act read.
Since 1789, Congress changed the maximum number of Justices on the Court several times. In 1801, President John Adams and a lame-duck Federalist Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which reduced the Court to five Justices in an attempt to limit incoming President Thomas Jefferson’s appointments to the high bench. Jefferson and his Republicans soon repealed that act, putting the Court back to six Justices. And in 1807, Jefferson and Congress added a seventh Justice when it added a seventh federal court circuit.
In early 1837, President Andrew Jackson was able to add two additional Justices after Congress again expanded the number of federal circuit court districts. Under different circumstances, Congress created a 10th circuit in 1863 during the Civil War, and it briefly had a 10th Supreme Court Justice. However, Congress after the war passed legislation in 1866 to reduce the Court to seven Justices. That only lasted until 1869, when a new Judiciary Act sponsored by Senator Lyman Trumbull set the number back to nine Justices, with six Justices required at a sitting to form a quorum. President Ulysses S. Grant eventually signed that legislation and nominated William Strong and Joseph Bradley to the newly restored seats.”
Repeat after me: 9 is not a magic number.
The main reason many of us have been leery of expanding the Supreme Court is the failure of Franklin Roosevelt’s so-called court packing plan. The attempt came after his 1936 obliteration of Republican nominee Alf Landon. SCOTUS continued to thwart FDR’s plans but the ultimate solution involved vote switching and retirements. By the end of his term, FDR had nominated 8 justices to 9 seats including some of the greats: Frankfurter, Black, Douglas, and Jackson.
In 2026, we can’t wait for the MAGA super-majority to be eroded by time. Neither Alito nor Thomas will ever retire with a Democrat in the White House. There were rumors that Sam the Sham would retire after the last term but he’s still there writing crazy and increasingly less coherent opinions. The worst thing about Alito’s jurisprudence is that he scorns the real world impact of his opinions. As far as he’s concerned, it’s Sam the Sham’s world and we just live in it.
Repeat after me: 9 is not a magic number.
Supreme Court expansion would NOT require a constitutional amendment. We’ve had 9 justices since 1869, which fails to account for our population growth from 38 million to 349 million. None of those numbers is magical. Neither is 9.
9 is not a magic number: Expand SCOTUS. Bring on the lucky 13.
The last word goes to Big Star followed by Johnny Cash: