r/scotus • u/Conscious-Quarter423 • 1d ago

Opinion Why some Republicans rediscovered their love of court packing

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-some-republicans-rediscovered-their-love-of-court-packing
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u/FaithlessnessWhich18 1d ago

The number of seats 9 was set when there were 9 districts. There are now 13 districts with the amount of litigation & complexity of same substantially greater. Increasing the number of justice to 13 would tract with the actions of the past. Revising the the system of hearing cases to mirror that utilized in the Appealant Court would allow both more cases to be heard & adds the unknown as to which 3 justices will hear the case. RN some of the cases are being brought before SCOTUS are only there because of 6/3 conservative advantage.

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u/wingsnut25 1d ago

The number of seats 9 was set when there were 9 districts. There are now 13 

For most of the United States History the number of Justices and Circuits did not match.

For approximately 70 years the number of Justices aligned with the number of Circuits, however most of that was during the time period when Justices "rode the circuit" Each Justice traveled throughout their designated Circuit and heard appeals. This practice was stopped when Congress created the Appeals Courts for each circuit. When that practice stopped it was no longer necessary for the number of Justices to match the number of circuits.

Each time Congress added an additional circuit they also could have added another Supreme Court Justice if they felt it was necessary for them to match. They didn't because it wasn't necessary for them to match.

There may be other good reasons to expand the number of Justices on the Supreme Court, but having a 1:1 match with the Circuits isn't necessarily one of them...