With the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade generating shockwaves across the country, Supreme Court expansion is once again emerging as a serious proposal in response to the extreme partisanship overtaking our nation’s highest court. Throughout our nation’s history, federal lawmakers have expanded and reduced the size of the Supreme Court several times to ensure a bench that provides prudent and fair judicial review.
The history of court expansion demonstrates that not only has the court’s size changed many times — changes to the number of seats on the bench are the logical outcome of the Framers’ intent for the Supreme Court.
While the Framers of our Constitution established the Supreme Court as the highest judicial body in the land, they left the particulars of the court for Congress to decide, including the size of the bench, the scope of the court’s jurisdiction, and the length of justices’ tenure. In the early days of our nation, the very first Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 establishing a Supreme Court of six justices. Since then, the size of the court has fluctuated.
