Senate Republicans unveil constitutional amendment locking SCOTUS at nine justices

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Republicans on Friday offered a retort to months of Democrat scrutiny on the Supreme Court, introducing a constitutional amendment that would block lawmakers from adding more justices to the high court’s bench.

The proposed amendment is the GOP majority’s first major legislative foray into the yearslong debate over the Supreme Court — and one that proponents say is a check on efforts to “pack” the bench with liberal-minded justices.

“Democrats’ radical court-packing scheme would erase the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and destroy historic precedent,” said Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who joined Texas Senator Ted Cruz in unveiling the measure.

Grassley argued that the amendment, titled the “Keep Nine Amendment,” would ensure that the high court “remains independent from political pressure.”

For years, Democrats have demanded that the Supreme Court crack down on ethical malfeasance among its justices, arguing that they were the targets of a right-wing dark money scheme to exert influence on the bench. As proof, lawmakers have long pointed to reports that Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito failed to report high-dollar gifts and hospitality lavished on them by influential conservative figures.

Democrats made little progress on their Supreme Court ethics push while they controlled the Senate and the White House. But they introduced a raft of legislation aimed at taking the justices to task, including one bill that would have added four new seats to the bench.

Republicans, meanwhile, accused their colleagues of attempting to flip the political balance of the court and its 6-3 conservative majority. Democrats, they contended, were merely trying to exact retribution on the justices for a string of major rulings — such as their 2022 move to roll back abortion rights and the 2024 decision handing President Donald Trump broad legal immunity for official acts of office.

“For years, Democrats have openly said that they intend to pack the Supreme Court,” Cruz said Friday. “They seek to use the court to advance policy goals they can’t accomplish electorally. Such a move would be a direct assault on the design of our Constitution, which is designed to ensure the Supreme Court remains a nonpartisan guardian of the rule of law.”

In addition to Grassley and Cruz, the proposed Republican amendment is cosponsored by an assortment of GOP lawmakers including Texas Senator John Cornyn, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and Utah Senator Mike Lee.

In order to add an amendment to the Constitution, both houses of Congress must pass the proposed change with a two-thirds majority. If the amendment makes it off Capitol Hill, it then must be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures.

Gabe Roth, director of reform-minded judicial advocacy group Fix the Court, was skeptical of the Republicans’ push to lock down the bench.

“I keep waiting for an amendment that addresses the notion that ‘the court’s hubris and thirst for power have reached unprecedented levels [and] that calls for meaningful action,” he said, quoting a 2015 op-ed penned by Cruz and published in the National Review. “But this isn’t it."

Even though Republicans enjoy majorities in both the House and Senate, their proposed amendment would still need Democrat support to pass — which appears unlikely.

With the GOP in control of Congress, however, there is also little Democrats can do to continue their ethics push on the high court. And Republican leaders have signaled that any such effort would be a political nonstarter while they are in power.

While they held the Senate majority, Democrats made their broadest strides towards an ethical reckoning at the court with their Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act. Sponsored by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the measure would have required the Supreme Court to draft a binding code of ethical conduct in public view.

The bill also would have established stringent rules for justices to recuse themselves from certain cases and would have set up a review board for adjudicating ethics complaints against the bench.

Whitehouse’s legislation narrowly passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, but faltered on the Senate floor, where Republicans blocked an attempt to pass the bill by unanimous consent.

Amid scrutiny from lawmakers and legal activists, the Supreme Court in 2023 unveiled a code of ethical conduct signed by all nine sitting justices. But critics have long pointed out that the court’s offering lacked a solid enforcement mechanism and have called on Chief Justice John Roberts to draft a more binding set of standards.

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