Republican senators are rallying around Sen. Marco Rubio’s constitutional amendment that he introduced more than a year ago to ensure there are no more than nine justices on the Supreme Court.
The GOP predicted that adding justices to the high court would be part of the Democratic Party’s agenda even before they moved to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Mr. Rubio told reporters on Wednesday.
During the Democratic primary, some candidates suggested adding up to 15 justices to the Supreme Court. The highest court in the nation has had nine justices for the past 150 years.
The Florida Republican noted he introduced the amendment more than a year and a half ago to make that number permanent.
The U.S. Constitution, though, does not set a specific number.
“You don’t need to hear from them about whether they will try to expand the court and pack it,” Mr. Rubio said of the Democrats, saying their answer is clearly yes.
“People need to be on the record about if they think it’s a good idea to destabilize one of the three branches of government with a court-packing scheme,” he added.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, urged his colleagues to support the amendment.
“I can’t think of a more destabilizing event for America than to change the number of justices on the Supreme Court every election cycle because it becomes a winner-take-all for the court,” Mr. Graham said.
During Wednesday’s press conference highlighting the amendment, GOP senators suggested Democrats would add about a dozen justices to the Supreme Court.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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