Overview
- The House Judiciary Committee voted 15-8 along party lines to advance HJR 1, a proposed constitutional amendment that would require the Supreme Court to be composed of nine justices, and the measure now moves to the full House.
- Several leading Democrats have publicly supported major changes to the Court, including Rep. Jamie Raskin’s proposal to add four justices and to give initial review of Supreme Court petitions to a rotating panel of 13 federal appellate judges, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said “everything is on the table.”
- Republican senators and House Republicans criticized Democratic plans as an abuse of power and labeled them court packing, and the Keep Nine Coalition warned that adding seats would invite retaliatory cycles that could harm the Court’s independence.
- A binding change to the Court’s size would face steep legal hurdles because a constitutional amendment needs two-thirds support in both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states; the Court has had nine justices since 1869 and the argument to match justices to 13 appellate circuits rests on practices that ended more than a century ago.
- The committee vote sends the dispute to the House floor and sharpens cues for voters and lawmakers ahead of November, with possible tangible effects on how major legal questions reach the justices and on public trust in the judiciary.