Some things never change. The Supreme Court of the US has nine justices. When one dies or resigns, the President picks another who must be approved by Congress. It's always been that way, right?

No.

Actually, the Supreme Court has changed the number of justices on the bench, many times.

The Constitution states (in Article 3) that "judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and such inferior Courts as the Congress may . . . establish." Nowhere does the Constitution say how many judges should be on that supreme Court, or what their qualifications should be.

Congress gets to decide how many judges there should be.The first Supreme Court had six, and they met for the first time in New York City (which was the US capital in 1790) at the Merchants Exchange Building.

A bit of trivia--for the first century of the Court's existance, judges were required to travel to the different judicial districts of the US and hold circuit courts twice a year in each. Travel was hard in those days, and this practice probably contributed to the death of one of the first justices, James Iredell, who was only 48 years old

Congress was feuding with President Jefferson and didn't want to give him a chance to appoint a new judge. They simply reduced the number of justices to five. That Congress got voted out, and the new Congress put the number back at six, giving Jefferson the opportunity to appoint a new judge. A few years later, Congress added another judge, making the total seven,

In 1837, Congress increased the number of justices to nine. It didn't stay that way, though. During the Civil War, the number was raised to ten. After the Civil War, Congress was again on the outs with the President--in this case, Andrew Johnson. To keep him from nominated anyone to the Supreme Court, Congress pass a law saying that the next three justices to retire or die would not be replaced. That way, the number would go back to seven.

Congress passed a new act in 1869 putting the number at nine. It stayed nine.

The only time that change threatened the Supreme Court again was during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's terms.

Roosevelt (FDR) was elected after the Depression hit. Roosevelt had a bunch of ideas: some worked, some didn't. He started government-funded programs to get people back to work, since so many jobs had been lost. His programs were called the "New Deal" and included things like Social Security, minimum wage , new agencies to watch-dog and regulate commerce and even--horrors!--encourage unions.

All that made some of the old guard very angry. The Supreme Court knocked down many of FDR's programs. The Depression was still going on, and the President felt the Court was blocking progress and recovery. FDR proposed a new bill that would add new justices to the Supreme Court.

FDR's plan would have forced each justice, as he reached age 70, to either retire or not. If he did not, the President could appoint another justice, until the Supreme Court topped out at 15. Fifteen!

The Court Packing Bill didn't pass Congress, but it wasn't really a failure. Shocked into re-examining their feelings about the New Deal, the Supreme Court stopped fighting FDR's programs and became more supportive.