House Democrats Block GOP Amendment Locking Court at 9

House Democrats defeated a constitutional amendment to fix the Supreme Court at nine seats by a 212-206 vote, as expansion gains ground in the party.

The House on Wednesday voted down a proposed constitutional amendment that would permanently fix the Supreme Court at nine seats. According to NBC News, the measure offered by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., failed 212-206, well short of the two-thirds majority needed to begin the amendment process. All but one Democrat — Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina — voted against it, while Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans, voted no on the GOP side. The amendment's text was simple: 'The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine justices consisting of one chief justice and eight associate justices.'

House Republican leaders paired the Supreme Court resolution with an anti-socialism measure as a series of messaging votes aimed at the 2026 midterms, per NBC News, with the GOP campaign arm's spokesman Mike Marinella arguing that Democrats would 'fundamentally transform America.' But MS NOW's Hayes Brown argues the amendment's very existence concedes the opposition's core point: Article III never sets the court's size, so Congress can already change it by statute. MS NOW notes the court began with six justices under the Judiciary Act of 1789, ranged as high as 10, and was cut to seven after the Civil War before being set at nine in 1869 to match the then-nine circuits.

NBC News reports that the office of Minority Whip Katherine Clark urged a 'no' vote, saying the amendment would strip Congress of a constitutional authority and do nothing about the 'affordability crisis' under President Donald Trump. Yet openness to expansion has moved from the left into the Democratic mainstream: former Rep. Jim Clyburn endorsed expanding the court to 13 seats — 'a baker's dozen' — on NBC News' Meet the Press, and former Vice President Kamala Harris said this summer that the party needs to 'revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices.' MS NOW adds that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has backed major, though unspecified, court reforms.

Wade, weakened the Voting Rights Act, and granted Trump immunity for official acts. 'What was once a fairly dramatic and fringe idea has now become mainstream,' Josh Orton, president of Demand Justice, told NBC News, adding that reformers plan to press the issue through the 2028 election cycle and want expansion 'in the first two years of the next Democratic administration.' MS NOW observes that momentum has grown steadily since the issue resurged in 2021, and that Biggs himself argued during committee debate that a Congress able to 'pack the court' could not let the judiciary check government overreach.

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Republicans will keep the court at nine seats if they hold power, while framing Democrats as controlled by 'Democrat Socialists,' according to NBC News. The vote is not a clean measure of expansion support, NBC cautions, since many Democrats who opposed the amendment have not endorsed adding seats. But the clash lands amid broader fights over judicial power: the Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether the state's congressional map — drawn to target Rep. Emanuel Cleaver — can face a voter referendum, with a ruling due by Tuesday to meet the Nov. 3 ballot deadline, per St. Louis Public Radio. Whoever holds power over courts' size and maps shapes election outcomes for years.

The amendment is dead in this Congress — it needed two-thirds in both chambers and never had a path, as MS NOW notes, which also flags a stalled Democratic proposal from Rep. Johnny Olszewski for Supreme Court term limits. Expansion advocates told NBC News the issue will run through the 2028 cycle, while Johnson pledged a locked nine-seat court under continued GOP control. Meanwhile, Missouri's Supreme Court must decide by Tuesday whether the redistricting referendum reaches the November ballot, and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said he will keep using the 2025 'Missouri First' map unless the court orders otherwise, according to St. Louis Public Radio.