Republicans Try, and Fail, to Set Number of Justices at 9

Republicans Remind Everyone That Number of Supreme Court Justices Is Not in Constitution

Amid signs Democrats may be more seriously mulling the possibility of some kind of Supreme Court reform, Republicans put forward an effort to set the number of justices at nine. I’m not sure it worked out exactly the way they hoped.

As context, you likely saw that over the weekend, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), a high-profile Democrat who has in the past held various positions in leadership, endorsed the idea of expanding the Court from nine justices to 13. Various court reformers have offered up the number 13 as a reasonable one to match the number of federal circuit courts. “I would hope we would get people on the court who will follow the constitutional underpinnings of this great nation of ours,” Clyburn said.

At the same time, Republicans in the House rolled out an attempt to set the number of justices at nine: a joint House-Senate resolution reading, “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices consisting of one chief justice and eight associate justices.” It was sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who is running for governor of Arizona.

The resolution would have needed a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate to pass, something that would have perhaps been achievable in another time, if you imagine a Democratic Party seeking to ostracize those radical Court reformers in their left flank. Instead, it barely achieved a simple majority, with a vote of 212 to 206. One Democrat — Don Davis of North Carolina — voted with Republicans, while Kevin Kiley, a Republican-turned-independent who still caucuses with his former party, voted against the resolution.

House Democratic leadership encouraged members to vote against the bill, with Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the House whip, writing, “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,” per NBC.

What the gambit effectively achieved, as Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley pointed out, was to underscore that the number of justices is not, in fact, enshrined in the Constitution, that the number of justices can at any moment be changed by Congress, and that there is not support in Congress to change that.

DHS’ ‘Voter Fraud’ Surge Takes Shape

Reports in the New York Times and Wired give us new details of how DHS’ pre-election voter fraud push is working.

• In Wired, David Gilbert writes that ICE is offering up to $5 million for a contract “for the handling and secure delivery of publicly available voter registration files and voter history files to support Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) fraud detection and data segmentation activities” before Sept. 30.
• The Times writes that as part of the push, federal agents are plugging people’s names and partial social security numbers into websites run by states that are intended for individual voters’ use.
• Its not clear where the list of individuals came from that agents are being asked to investigate, but one source told the Times it includes U.S. citizens.

Tabs

• Gloria Steinem has died at 92.
• Elon Musk and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) met in Texas as the billionaire contemplates dumping millions into House races there, according to Politico.
• The U.S. on Tuesday bombed a wedding in Iran, killing a six-year-old boy and several others, the New York Times reports.

Man of the Hour

It’s Ted Cruz, glutton for punishment, visiting Iowa and reportedly contemplating another run for president in 2028.

Are We at War?

Yes, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quietly extending deployments into 2027, per the Wall Street Journal.