KEY VOTE ALERT – HOUSE – YES on H.J.Res 1

Club for Growth urges all Representatives to vote YES on H.J.Res 1, a constitutional amendment introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs to require that the Supreme Court be composed of nine justices — one chief justice and eight associate justices. A vote in the House is expected soon under the suspension of the rules because a 2/3rd majority is required to pass a constitutional amendment anyways. The results of this vote will be included in the Club for Growth Foundation’s 2026 congressional scorecard.

The operative language is a single sentence: the Supreme Court “shall be composed of nine justices consisting of one chief justice and eight associate justices.” The Supreme Court has been composed of nine justices since the Judiciary Act of 1869. While it’s true the number of justices has changed since 1789, fluctuating between 6 and 10 justices, the Founders never intended for Congress to abuse the Judicial Branch through a partisan political charade to pack the Court to 13 justices or more as some Senators have proposed.

H.J.Res. 1 enshrines the Supreme Court’s size in the Constitution where it belongs, beyond the reach of a single election cycle’s ambitions. Court-packing is not a historical curiosity. In the 117th Congress, the Judiciary Act of 2021 proposed adding four seats to expand the Court from nine to thirteen, and the threat to inflate the Court to manufacture a favorable majority has recurred in every recent Congress. The purpose of that scheme is transparent: to seize through raw numbers what its proponents cannot win in a neutral courtroom. An independent Supreme Court is the last structural check on the administrative state — the institution that holds unelected agencies to the limits of the law and protects the property rights and economic liberty on which growth depends. A Supreme Court that can be packed at will is a Supreme Court that can be captured, and a captured Supreme Court is an open door for unaccountable government.

Therefore, Club for Growth urges a YES vote on H.J.Res 1.

Club for Growth Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard for the 119th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to the public.