By Nate Raymond and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives defeated a constitutional amendment on Wednesday to permanently cap the Supreme Court at nine justices, voting against a Republican proposal designed to make the court's conservative majority a campaign issue ahead of November 3 elections.
House Republicans staged the vote to highlight the potential for Democrats, angered by rulings on issues such as abortion and voting rights, to expand
the court and weaken its conservative majority if they regain control of Congress in November's midterms.
The measure failed 212-206, far short of the necessary two-thirds majority to pass in the House.
Republicans control 218 seats in the House, compared with 214 held by Democrats. Even had the measure passed, it faced long odds in the U.S. Senate and would have needed to then be ratified by 38 of the 50 U.S. states.
Republicans and Democrats, when holding majority control of the House, have historically staged votes on bills they know will fail but are known as "messaging bills" that can be used to shore up support with voters during election campaigns and force political opponents into taking stands on thorny issues.
Republican Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to schedule the vote with few legislative days left before the November 3 elections underscored Republican concerns that Trump's low approval ratings could cost the party its House or Senate majority.
"One of their objectives, among all the crazy things, is they want to pack the U.S. Supreme Court," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday ahead of the vote in reference to Democrats. "We're going to make sure that doesn't happen."
House Republicans supporting Wednesday's proposed amendment argued it was necessary to put an end to Democratic proposals to alter the court's size after President Donald Trump, a Republican, appointed three justices to give the court a conservative 6-3 majority.
"Surprise, surprise America. It's another partisan power grab by MAGA, our colleagues who fear for the results in the November election as their policies have brought us nothing but war, inflation, corruption, lawlessness and a $40 trillion debt," Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said in a speech opposing the measure.
THE NUMBER OF JUSTICES IS AN OPEN QUESTION
The U.S. Constitution does not establish how many justices should sit on the Supreme Court, and the size has fluctuated over the course of U.S. history, with Congress reducing it to as few as five justices and expanding it to as many as 10 over the years. The Supreme Court has had nine justices since 1869.
A failed push by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 to add up to six justices was widely criticized as an effort to "pack" the court after the justices struck down parts of his New Deal agenda. Lawmakers rejected his bid decisively.
"That was the birth perhaps of the attempt to have an imperial executive," Republican Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona argued during House debate. "It wasn't about building a better courthouse ... it was about changing the composition of the court for ideological purposes."
The court since 2021 has overturned the nationwide right to abortion, expanded gun rights, curtailed the power of federal agencies and allowed the Republican president to execute much of his second-term agenda.
Democrats have since put forward legislation that would expand the number of justices on the court to 13 — an option they say Congress must maintain under Trump.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Howard Goller)
