Biggs wanted to cap number of SCOTUS justices to prevent Dems packing court. It was unsuccessful

Arizona Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs led an unsuccessful effort this week to cap the amount of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine, which he said would prevent future Democratic leaders from appointing more liberal justices.

“If a sitting majority can change the size of the Supreme Court the moment it dislikes rulings, what happens the next time the other side is in power? What stops them from doing the same thing?” Biggs said.

The proposal died on party lines Wednesday, without the support of Democrats. As a constitutional amendment, it would have needed two thirds of the chamber to pass.

Biggs is a close ally of President Donald Trump, who regularly talks about the danger of Democrats “packing the court” if they ever regain power.

“These Corrupt and Deranged Democrats, if they ever gain power ... will also PACK THE COURT with a total of 21 Supreme Court Justices, THEIR DREAM, which they will submit easily and rapidly when they immediately move to terminate the Filibuster, probably in their first week, or sooner. Our Country will never be the same if they allow these demented and evil people to knowingly, and happily, destroy it,” Trump posted on Truth Social in February.

Biggs echoed that concern when talking about his proposal.

“It fixes the number of justices at nine permanently, not because nine is a magic number but because a fixed court cannot be expanded by whoever happens to win the next election,” Biggs told his colleagues.

Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, added two more justices to the state Supreme Court in 2016.

Biggs was the Arizona Senate president at the time and supported it, arguing that Arizona’s growing population necessitated the expansion.

Ducey appointed five of the seven Arizona Supreme Court justices. The other two justices were appointed by Ducey’s predecessor, Republican Jan Brewer, and the current governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs. The court, with Republican appointees holding a 6-1 advantage, has consistently sided with conservative arguments

Of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, three were appointed by George W. Bush, two by Barack Obama, one by Joe Biden, and three by Trump. And Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings or vote on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland after the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016. The seat remained vacant for more than a year, and the duration of Obama’s presidency, as Senate Republicans held out for Trump to eventually win office and nominate Neil Gorsuch.

The 6-3 advantage for Republican appointees has created a powerful majority that, like Arizona’s court, consistently rules in favor of conservatives.

“Packing the court is not simply a policy disagreement, it is an attempt to change the structure of one of the three branches of government in order to guarantee the outcome you want. That’s not reform, that’s revolution,” Biggs said Wednesday.

Biggs said in a press release on Thursday that the vote shows Democrats want to pack the court, otherwise they would have supported his proposal.

“For years now, Democrats have made their desire to pack the U.S. Supreme Court with liberal justices known. But don’t be fooled – this desire doesn’t stem from concern that the Court’s workload is too high, or the nation has outgrown the Court. It stems only from a dissatisfaction that the Court hasn’t rubber-stamped the blatantly unconstitutional, leftist, heavy-handed policies they want to impose on the American people,” Biggs wrote.