Cruz Moves To Limit Supreme Court To Nine Justices

Courthouse News reports:

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.

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.

Read the full article. The bill, authored by Sen. Ted Cruz, has so far been cosponsored by Grassley, Cornyn, Tillis, and Lee. As noted here several times recently, constitutional amendments can take decades to reached the required ratification by three-fourths of all states. A separate bill cosponsored yesterday by Cruz would make “protesting or parading” near the home of a Supreme Court justice a felony punishable by five years in prison.