Nearly every House Democrat voted to kill a constitutional amendment proposal on Wednesday that would have kept the Supreme Court at nine justices.
In a 212-206 vote, with 15 members not voting, the House failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed to pass HJR 1. Known as the “Keep Nine Amendment,” the measure sought to require SCOTUS to “be composed of nine justices.”
The House Judiciary Committee previously cleared the amendment in a party-line vote in June.
Wednesday’s vote came mostly along party lines, with 211 Republicans and Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., voting in favor of the amendment. Meanwhile, 205 Democrats and Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif. — who caucuses with Republicans — voted in opposition.
The Federalist previously asked 16 vulnerable House Democrats in July about their stance on court-packing and whether they would support HJR 1 on the House floor. Only Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, responded. While the Texas congressman claimed that he opposes court-packing, the roll call for Wednesday’s vote shows that he voted against HJR 1.
Introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., the Keep Nine Amendment was aimed at staving off Democrats’ growing calls to pack the Supreme Court if given power in the 2026 midterms. The goal, as it seems, is to change the makeup of the court in order to achieve Democrat-favorable outcomes in future decisions.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has all but promised that his party will move to stack the high court with left-wing activists should he obtain the speaker’s gavel in January. While trashing SCOTUS last month, the New York leftist said that Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and other court-packing supporters on the House Judiciary Committee “are going to take the lead on what dramatic reform of the Supreme Court looks like.”
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., followed suit weeks later, telling NBC News on Sunday that he backs his party’s efforts to add four new justices to the Supreme Court. Several potential 2028 presidential contenders, such as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, have similarly touted such a radical proposal.
HJR 1 enjoined support from the Keep Nine Coalition, an organization comprised of several grassroots groups and former bipartisan elected officials seeking to protect the Supreme Court’s long-term independence. While speaking with The Federalist in June, Keep Nine Director Roman Buhler acknowledged the unlikelihood of Congress ratifying the amendment, but expressed hope that enough support for the amendment among a “handful” of Democrats could stymie the left’s court-packing gambit in the short term.
“Our thinking is that if a handful of Democrats in Congress stand up and say [they’re] not going to allow the independence of the Supreme Court to be undermined … and they’re not going to go along with court expansion, then the leaders of whatever Democratic majority might be elected in the future might … realize [they] don’t have the votes to expand the court,” Buhler said at the time. “Even a handful of Democrats that are willing to stand up now and say, ‘Let’s not do this,’ could have a big impact because it could change the strategic calculation for all Democrats.”
The House is scheduled to wrap up business on Thursday before heading out for a week-long vacation. Lawmakers are slated to return on Sept. 14.
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