Washington — A Republican-backed effort to amend the Constitution and permanently cap the Supreme Court at nine justices fell short in the House on Wednesday, failing to reach the two-thirds threshold required for approval.
Lawmakers voted 212 to 206 in favor of the joint resolution, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona. The proposed amendment states that “the Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices consisting of one chief justice and eight associate justices.”
“It fixes the number of justices at nine permanently, not because nine is a magic number, but because a fixed court cannot be expanded by whoever happens to win the next election,” Biggs said during Wednesday’s floor debate.
To amend the Constitution, a proposal must win two-thirds support in both the House and Senate before being ratified by three-fourths of the states.
The vote was the latest move by Republicans this week to spotlight and challenge positions associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, as several candidates who support parts of its agenda are expected to enter Congress next year. On Tuesday, the House passed a resolution condemning socialism “in all its forms.”
The DSA’s platform calls for replacing the Supreme Court with a “judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” In recent years, some Democrats have also advocated expanding the court, including Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, who said Sunday that he supports increasing the number of justices to 13.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that keeping the Supreme Court at nine justices is “critically important.”
“Nine justices has worked well,” the Louisiana Republican said. “If you go down the road of packing the Supreme Court it turns into a political palooza, and it would not serve the country.”
House Democratic leadership urged members to vote against the amendment, saying it would strip Congress “of yet another constitutional authority that is meant to be controlled by the American people’s representatives.”
“This Republican majority — which has already surrendered Congressional war powers, Congressional taxing and tariff powers, and Congressional spending powers to President Trump — would now permanently relinquish the power to set the number of Supreme Court Justices, given to Congress in Article I of the Constitution,” said a notice to members from Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the House Democratic Whip.
Since 1789, Congress has exercised its constitutional authority to change the total number of justices seven times. The court has had nine seats since 1869.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, argued that the vote stems from GOP fears about the November election results.
“Trump’s followers in Congress now seek to freeze into place the political court that MAGA built, for decades to come. Thus, they urge us to give away another critical power that the framers vested in us,” Raskin said on the House floor Wednesday.
