The idea of a 13-member Supreme Court is suddenly mainstream among Democrats. Pete Buttigieg is for it, and now so is Jim Clyburn, so the idea is getting support from sensible people, not just online freaks who also support voting rights for pigeons. I have long supported term limits for justices so that appointments become routine governance instead of a contest to see which side’s justices are most adept at cheating death. But I don’t support expanding the court, and here’s why.
The argument for expansion starts with the observation that the number of justices is not fixed by the Constitution. That’s true but, in my humble opinion, also boneheaded, and the founders buttressed my “sometimes the founders were idiots” theory by initially appointing six justices, which made ties possible. Eventually, our math wizard forebears realized that an odd number would be better, and the number of justices changed several times before settling at nine in 1869. That’s where it’s stayed, and not even FDR could change it, and that guy won a world war from a wheelchair.
