LaMalfa cosponsors constitutional amendment setting size of Supreme Court

Congressman Doug LaMalfa issued the following statement after cosponsoring H.J.Res. 95, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would permanently set the number of U.S. Supreme Court Justices to nine.

The proposed amendment states: “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be comprised of nine Justices.”

“America’s founders intentionally created the judiciary to be a branch that is independent from politics. Court packing undermines this fundamental part of our country’s system of checks and balances,” LaMalfa said. “The radical left has made calls to pack the court because their opposition has had a say in the makeup of the court this presidential term. President Trump is keeping his pledge to appoint justices that abide by the Constitution, and the left now wants to change the rules because they lost the 2016 election. Court packing would turn the Supreme Court into a tool for partisan gain, threatening the stability of our government after every election cycle. Even the late Justice Ginsberg herself opposed court packing because it would undermine the safeguards around our independent judiciary. I am proud to cosponsor this amendment to the U.S. Constitution to preserve our republic and ensure the integrity of our judiciary is not threatened by partisanship.”

Currently, the size of the Supreme Court is set by Congress through statute. Congress has changed the number of justices several times throughout our nation’s history, and last modified the size of the court in 1869, raising the number of Justices from seven to nine.