Nine is not enough

During the past 151 years, from 1869 to 2020, the U.S. has gone from having six to nine Supreme Court justices as our nation’s population increased eightfold from about 39 million to 329 million. Today, we are not adequately represented by only nine judges in a much more populated and diverse country.

The Biden administration, the Democratic Party and U.S. citizens need to aggressively take immediate action to increase the number of judges on the Supreme Court from nine to 13 before the end of Biden’s first term. We need to bring much more balance to a lopsided court that is supposed to represent all Americans, regardless of their personal belief systems. If not, this country may not survive a downward spiral toward being just another dictatorship or autocracy.

Trump would do this again with support of the ultra-wealthy’s money and the religious extremists’ demands during a second term. Trump’s attempted coup to illegally stay in power came closer to destroying our democracy than any time in American history. It’s time for us to write letters and make phone calls to our senators and representatives and get them moving toward Supreme Court expansion to 13 justices.

With Trump’s three court appointments of Kavanaugh, Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, this is the first Supreme court in decades in which conservatives now hold a 6-3 supermajority on the court. Roberts, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas are the other three conservatives.

Kelly Courtright

Deer Park