Supreme Court Expansion (Size of the Court)

Current understanding

Legislation has been introduced in the 119th Congress to increase the size of the U.S. Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices. HR8647 (Rep. Green) is one such proposal, referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Proponents frame expansion as a corrective to perceived partisan imbalance on the Court; opponents view it as court-packing that would politicize the judiciary. The bill is at the introduced stage with no committee action.

Evidence log

• 2026-05-04 — Representative Green’s Original Legislation to increase from 9 to 13 the number of justices of the Supreme Court.: cross-connection with supreme-court-tenure-term-limits: Both address structural reform of the Supreme Court in the 119th Congress — expansion (changing the number of seats) versus tenure/term limits (changing how long justices serve). (novelty: 2)

Open questions

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