Introduced in the Senate by Senator Markey (D-MA) and in the House by Representative Johnson (D-GA) the Judiciary Act of 2021 provides the most urgent solution to a Supreme Court that has been captured by conservative extremists. This bill would add four additional justices to the bench and undo the decades of conservative court-packing that got us into this mess. The Constitution does not require a set number of Supreme Court justices and the number has fluctuated over the years. In fact, the number of Justices on the Supreme Court changed six times before settling at the present total of nine in 1869.
A brief history of the number of Justices on the Supreme Court:
1789: The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the first Supreme Court, with six Justices.
1801: President John Adams and a lame-duck Federalist Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which reduced the Court to five Justices in an attempt to limit incoming President Thomas Jefferson’s appointments to the high bench.
1802: Jefferson and his Republicans repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, putting the Court back to six Justices.
1807: Jefferson and Congress added a seventh Justice when it added a seventh federal court circuit.
1837: President Andrew Jackson added two additional Justices after Congress again expanded the number of federal circuit court districts.
1863: Under different circumstances, Congress created a 10th circuit in 1863 during the Civil War, and briefly had a 10th Supreme Court Justice.
1866: After the Civil War, Congress passed legislation to reduce the Court to seven Justices.
1869: Senator Lyman Trumbull sponsored a new Judiciary Act to set the number back to nine Justices, with six Justices required at a sitting to form a quorum.
And THAT is where we are today. With 13 federal circuit court districts, it’s time to increase the number of justices!