House Democrats Reject GOP Power Grab to Freeze Supreme Court at Nine Justices
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A Republican-backed amendment to permanently cap the Supreme Court at nine members was defeated as House Democrats stood firm, refusing to enshrine a conservative majority and protect right-wing interests.
The U.S. House rejected a Republican-driven constitutional amendment that would have locked the Supreme Court at nine justices, a move widely seen as an attempt to entrench the current conservative dominance of the bench. The measure, introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., was aggressively pushed by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who bypassed standard procedures and imposed a two-thirds supermajority threshold, seeking to rush through a measure that would limit future progressive reforms.
Despite a majority of House members supporting the amendment, it failed to reach the required supermajority, thanks to the principled opposition of most Democrats. Democrats argued that fixing the Court’s size would cement an undemocratic conservative majority and strip Congress of its constitutional authority to respond to the will of the people. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., denounced the proposal as a blatant attempt to “strip Congress of all authority in the matter” and lock in a partisan, right-wing configuration. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., warned that a permanent nine-justice limit would allow the current reactionary majority to block progress for generations.
Republicans, desperate to prevent any future expansion of the Court that could restore balance and reflect the nation’s diversity, claimed the amendment would stop so-called 'court-packing' by Democrats. Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., tried to frame proposals to increase the Court’s size as efforts to “consolidate power,” ignoring the GOP’s own history of manipulating the judiciary.
The Constitution grants Congress the authority to determine the number of justices—a power used throughout history to adapt to changing times. The Court currently sits with eight associate justices and a chief justice, but the Republican attempt to freeze its size was rightly rejected by those defending democracy.