South Lake Today

Washington, D.C. — Florida Congressman Daniel Webster, R-Clermont, joined Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) to reintroduce a constitutional amendment that would prevent court packing by capping the size of the Supreme Court at nine justices.

“Calls from the radical left to pack the Supreme Court is another senseless power grab to radically change our institutions in order to fit their political agenda,” said Rep. Webster. “Since 1869, the U.S. Supreme Court has consisted of 9 members. Upsetting the balance of power between the three branches of government could destabilize the foundational principles of our Constitution’s system of checks and balances. I am confident that so long as we maintain this system of checks and balances, we will continue to enjoy the security and freedom of our Constitutional Government.”

“Radical progressives want to delegitimize the Supreme Court by packing it with liberal justices. This is a recipe for chaos, an idea so crazy that President Biden’s own Supreme Court commission dismissed it. The Court has had no more than nine justices for over 150 years, and it’s time we pass a constitutional amendment to make this precedent permanent before it’s too late. We can’t undermine the public’s confidence in the Court because ‘the squad’ didn’t get its way,” said Rep. Gallagher.

Keeping the court at nine justices has been respected by current and former Supreme Court Justices, including the late Justice Ginsburg publicly stated in 2019 “I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack the court” and that, “Nine seems to be a good number” when asked about expanding the number of justices.  Rep. Webster previously joined Rep. Gallagher in 2021 to introduce the amendment after President Biden announced he would create a commission that would explore court packing and other reforms to the Supreme Court and House and Senate Democrats pushed legislation that would add four more justices to the court. 

Original source can be found here.