The record

LegislationLegislation· Sep 2026
H.J.Res. 1 Failed a floor vote

Sponsored by Andy Biggs (R)

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the Supreme Court of the United States be composed of nine justices.

Would require the Supreme Court to have exactly nine justices by constitutional amendment.

Tradeoff

Would lock the Court's size at nine justices in the Constitution. This would prevent future Congresses from changing the number of justices without another amendment.

What's in it

See official bill text

No cost to the federal budget; the resolution itself has no budgetary effect, and if ratified, implementation would cost nothing because the Court already has nine justices.

This is a constitutional amendment proposal with zero federal enforcement or administrative cost because the Supreme Court currently already meets the proposed requirement of nine justices.

H.J. Res. 1, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the Supreme Court of the United States be composed of nine justices · Jul 2026

The House voted on this on September 2, 2026, and it failed 212-206.

  1. House

    Introduced

    (Jan 3, 2025)

  2. House

    Committee on the Judiciary(Jan 3, 2025)

  3. House

    The Committee on Judiciary voted to send it to the floor

    Reported 15 - 8(Jun 3, 2026)

    Committee report H. Rept. 119-732.

  4. House

    On Motion to and Pass

    Failed(Roll #293 · Sep 2, 2026)

    212 yeanay 206

Passage votes so far· Sep 2, 2026· 119th Congress · 2025–2027