LogFAQs > #946345654

So, this is something...

https://www.history.com/news/supreme-court-justices-number-constitution

Only since 1869 have there consistently been nine justices appointed to the Supreme Court. Before that, Congress routinely changed the number of justices to achieve its own partisan political goals, resulting in as few as five Supreme Court justices required by law under John Adams to as many as 10 under Abraham Lincoln.
The U.S. Constitution is silent about how many justices should sit on the Supreme Court. In fact, the office of Chief Justice only exists because its mentioned in the Constitution under Senate rules for impeachment proceedings (When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside...).
Its Congress, not the Constitution, that decides the size of the Supreme Court, which it did for the first time under the Judiciary Act of 1789. When George Washington signed the Act into law, he set the number of Supreme Court justices at six.

By the start of the Civil War, the number of Supreme Court justices had increased to nine in order to cover additional circuit courts in the expanding American West. But Abraham Lincoln, upset over the Supreme Courts 1857 decision in Dred Scott and wanting to cement an anti-slavery majority on the Court, added a 10th justice in 1863.
After the Civil War and Lincolns assassination, Congress clashed with Lincolns successor, Andrew Johnson, who was rapidly undoing the Radical Republicans plan for Reconstruction. To limit Johnsons power, Congress passed legislation in 1866 that cut the number of Supreme Court justices back to seven, all but assuring that Johnson wouldnt have the opportunity to fill a vacant seat.
The last time Congress changed the number of Supreme Court justices was in 1869, again to meet a political end. Ulysses S. Grant was elected president in 1868 with the backing of the congressional Republicans who had hated Johnson. As a gift to Grant, Congress increased the number of justices from seven back to nine, and Grant gamely used those picks.

9 is far from the sanctified number we think it is, anyway.
Someone on Reddit suggested Dems pass a law tying the number of SC justices to the number of circuit courts, adding some so they in turn get 2 new justices as revenge.
Then Republicans would have to add more circuit courts to stack the court further.

It's something.... Fuck Mitch McConnell for even making this a discussion...

Wanded posted...

they didn't get cheated, the senate didn't approve their picks

The senate never voted on their picks in the first place