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<v 0>The number of Supreme court justices has varied from five to 10 to the current</v>

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night.

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The idea of adding more justices has been referred to as packing the court.

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The constitution does not state how many justices should be on the Supreme

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court. Leaving that decision to Congress in 1789,

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Congress first passed legislation,

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putting a chief justice and five associate justices on the court.

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But since then, the number of seats has changed six times in 1801,

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president John Adams,

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and his Federalist majority Congress reduced the court to five to stop incoming

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president Thomas Jefferson's judicial appointment,

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but Jefferson's political party would feel that act and return the number to six

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Jefferson and Congress added a seventh member in 1807.

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As new federal circuits were established alongside new States as the country

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expanded president Andrew Jackson's congressional allies added two more seats.

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And during the civil war, there were 10 justices.

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The most there has ever been the judiciary act of 1869.

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Fix the number of justices at nine to match the number of circuit courts

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established after the civil war, since then no changes have been made.

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But that doesn't mean there haven't been attempts in 1936,

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Franklin D Roosevelt grew frustrated with parts of his new deal being struck

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down as unconstitutional by the Supreme court.

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So Roosevelt proposed a bill to expand the courts by adding one justice for

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each justice over the age of 70 adding as many as six seats,

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this was referred to as the court packing plan, the bill failed in Congress,

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but the term court packing stuck and now refers to the president and Congress

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adding Supreme court justices often to gain a majority that will align with

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their ideology.