U.S. Constitution Should Include Amendment Stating the Supreme Court Has 9 Justices, Proponents Say

Patricia TolsonSeptember 1, 2022

As Democrats promote legislation to add four justices to the Supreme Court, a bipartisan countereffort is moving to ban court packing permanently.

“We think it could be a really critical issue in the 2022 elections,” Roman Buhler told The Epoch Times.

Buhler, an attorney and longtime political adviser, is executive director of Keep Nine, an organization pushing for lawmakers to amend the Constitution and codify that the U.S. Supreme Court must have nine justices.

Roman Buhler, executive director of the Keep Nine coalition. (Courtesy of Roman Buhler)

Despite numerous admonitions from Democrats regarding the risks of court packing, Buhler said he and his colleagues began hearing chatter on the left about packing the court in early 2019, just after Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would confirm a Trump nominee if a Supreme Court vacancy occurred in 2020.

Calls to pack the court rose to a fever pitch after President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barret. Known to be pro-life, Democrats worried her rise to the Supreme Court would herald the demise of Roe v. Wade, a fear that came to fruition in June.

Despite the clamoring of Democratic politicians, the media, and pro-abortion activists, Buhler warns that the idea of court packing “is not very popular” with most voters.

Voters Oppose Court Packing

According to an October 2020 Washington Examiner/YouGov Poll, more than 60 percent of registered voters surveyed said they opposed packing the court with liberal justices if more seats were added to the court. While 47 percent said they would prefer to see a balanced court if it were expanded with additional seats, only 11 percent said they wanted the court to be “overwhelmingly liberal.”

Even 52 percent of Democrats surveyed said they wanted the court to be balanced, with only 38 percent saying they wanted it to have a liberal majority.