The Supreme Court

 

If I Had a Hammer

Well I got a hammer, and I got a bell
And I got a song to sing all over this land
It's the hammer of JUSTICE, it's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land

How many seats should the Supreme Court have if they are to hammer out justice?

It is hard to divorce the question of the structure of the Supreme Court from the rancor over the hearings of Brent Kavanaugh, the hearings of Clarence Thomas, the denial of a hearing for Merrick Garland, the denial of a seat as Chief Justice to Abe Fortas, the denial of a seat as an Associate Justice to Robert Bork, the rushed hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, and the denial of  a stay in the Texas abortion case.  However, I am going to try. 

When the US Judiciary was established in 1789, there were three circuits (An aside. The name circuit goes back to a time when travel was hard and judges had to "ride the circuit" and travel to a trial, instead of having a permanent location and having trials "travel" to the judges)  There are now 11 Circuits ( 13 if you count DC and the Federal Circuit), an increase of 367% (or 437% if the circuits are 13).  In the Census of 1790, the population of the United States was 3.9 million.  As of the 2020 Census it was 331.4 million, an increase of 8435%.  There were 13 states in 1789 and that has increased to 50 today, an increase of 384%.  At two Senators per state, that percentage increase in Senators has been the same. In 1789 there were 65 representatives in the House.  There are now 435 representatives, an increase of 669%. There were 69 electoral votes cast in 1789.  There were 538 electoral votes cast in the election of 2020, an increase of 780%.  Over this same period the number of Justices on the Supreme Court has increased from 6 in 1789 to 9 today, an increase of 150%.  If the growth in the US has been more than 150%, shouldn’t the number of Justices on its Supreme Court be more than 9?

Even if there had been no rancor, a case could be made that the number of justices on the Supreme Court is not in keeping with the growth of the US.  Increasing the number of justices is not an evil packing of the court, any more than buying larger clothes for a growing child is evil. It is an acceptance of growth.