I agree - False
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Suprem鈥?/a>
In part:
The United States Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court; instead, Article III of the Constitution gives Congress the power to fix the number of Justices. Originally, the total number of Justices was set at six by the Judiciary Act of 1789. As the country grew geographically, the number of Justices steadily increased to correspond with the growing number of judicial circuits. The court was expanded to seven members in 1807, nine in 1837 and ten in 1863. In 1866, at the behest of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act which provided that the next three Justices to retire would not be replaced; thus, the size of the Court would eventually reach seven by attrition. Consequently, one seat was removed in 1866 and a second in 1867. In the Circuit Judges Act of 1869, the number of Justices was again set at nine (the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices), where it has remained ever since.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to expand the Court (see Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937); his plan would have allowed the President to appoint one new, additional justice for every justice who reached the age of 70 years 6 months but did not retire from the bench, until the Court reached a maximum size of fifteen justices. Ostensibly, the proposal was made to ease the burdens of the docket on the elderly judges, but it was widely believed that the President's actual purpose was to add Justices who would favor his New Deal policies, which had been regularly ruled unconstitutional by the Court. This plan, referred to often as the Court Packing Plan, failed in Congress. The Court, however, moved from its opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal programs, rendering the President's effort moot. In any case, Roosevelt's long tenure in the White House allowed him to appoint eight Justices to the Supreme Court (second only to George Washington) and promote one Associate Justice to Chief Justice.
The Constitution established a Supreme Court with 9 justices. True of False?
False. The existence of the Supreme Court is established by the Constitution (';The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.';) but it's organization, duties and size was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the Court with a Chief Justice and 5 Associate Justices.
The number of justices in the Court has changed 6 times, before settling at 9 in 1869.
It almost changed again when FDR was President. When he was unable to get some of the more blatantly Socialist of his ';New Deal'; policies through Congress, he proposed packing the Court with enough additional Liberal Justices to declare opposition to his plans to be unconstitutional. Faced with the prospect of a Supreme Court that would be a mere 'rubber stamp' for the Presidency, Congress folded, and passed the New Deal bills. (Read about FDR's Court packing plan here... http://www.fff.org/comment/com0504h.asp )
Read the history of the courts fluctuation in size here....http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/opinio鈥?/a>
Richard
False -- the Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court. Article III gives Congress the power to set the number of justices. Originally there were six which has changed over the years. The number number of nine was established by the Circuit Judges Act of 1869, which set the court composition as the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.
False. The number of justices in the supreme Court is not specified by the Constitution. It just states that ';There will be a Supreme Court, there will be a Chief Justice, and there will be other Justices...';
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