Senate Republicans Move to Protect the Supreme Court With Constitutional Amendment
Jenny Beth Martin
Posted: Oct 22, 2020 10:27 AM
Every now and then, a man, a mission, and a moment all come together. Such is now the case with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who this week introduced, with several cosponsors, S.J.Res. 76, a constitutional amendment to hold the number of justices on the Supreme Court at nine.
It’s an axiom of conservatism that “If it is not necessary to change, then it is necessary not to change.†In other words, in more modern language, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But what if it is broke? Or, worse still, what if you know that something working fine now is about to become broken? Doesn’t it make sense to take steps to prevent the imminent breakdown?
That’s what Cruz’s effort seeks to address. The Court is working fine now, but Cruz – and anyone else paying attention – know it’s about to be broken if Joe Biden wins the presidency and Democrats recapture control of the Senate.
For more than 150 years, the number of justices on the Supreme Court has been set, by law, at nine – “the Chief Justice of the United States and eight associate justices,†in the words of the Judiciary Act of 1969. Through Reconstruction, two world wars, the Great Depression, the New Deal, the Cold War, the Great Society, the Reagan Revolution, 9/11 and its aftermath, the Great Recession, and now the Trump presidency and everything in between, almost all of us have agreed that nine was the appropriate number of justices on the Supreme Court. Almost all of us have agreed that this structure was the best way to preserve the integrity and independence of the Supreme Court, and protect our constitutional liberties.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/jennybethmartin/2020/10/22/senate-republicans-move-to-protect-the-supreme-court-with-constitutional-amendment-n2578583
