Law would lock Supreme Court at nine judges forever.
H.J.Res. 1 — 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. · Filed by Andy Biggs (R-AZ) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Failed
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What it does
This joint resolution proposes a change to the Constitution. It would require the Supreme Court to have nine judges. Right now, Congress can change the Court's size by passing a regular law. This change would stop that. Congress could only change the Court's size again by passing another change to the Constitution.
Who it affects
The change affects all future Congresses and all Americans. It would prevent Congress from expanding the Court without a change to the Constitution. Citizens would know the Court's size would never change. But they would lose the power to fix it through normal laws.
One thing to notice
The change would need approval from 38 state legislatures within seven years. It locks only the number of judges, not how they are picked or when they serve.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Jan 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 3, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
- Jun 3, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jun 3, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 15 - 8”
- Sep 2, 2026 — Failed · Congress.gov: “Failed of passage/not agreed to in House On motion to suspend the rules and pass the resolution Failed by the…”
- Sep 2, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Biggs (AZ) moved to suspend the rules and pass the resolution”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- change to the Constitution — A formal change to the nation's basic rules that needs approval from Congress and 38 states.
- joint resolution — A formal proposal from Congress that can propose a change to the Constitution.
- approval — Official agreement or permission from the required number of states.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,424 characters) on Jun 6, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-18.
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