Republicans Push for Amendment to Limit Supreme Court Justices Permanently to 9

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced an amendment that would cement the number of seats on the Supreme Court to nine, coming after some top Democrats have threatened to pack the nation’s highest court should Judge Amy Coney Barrett be confirmed. “To prevent the delegitimizing of the Supreme Court, I am introducing a constitutional amendment to keep the number of seats at nine. Our institutions matter. Our Constitution matters. And we should fight to protect them,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote in a statement.

Rubio and those who support his amendment to permanently limit the number of Supreme Court Justices to nine, said that the Supreme Court must remain apolitical and that increasing the number of justices each election cycle would erode that judicial institution and create a “super-legislature.” The Constitution does not prescribe a number of seats to the Supreme Court. The number of the seats fluctuated until 1869, when it …