The House had the vote this afternoon.

The House had the vote this afternoon.

H.J. Res. 1, the Keep Nine amendment, failed under suspension of the rules, 212 to 206. Two-thirds was required. Two-thirds was not in the room. That is Clerk roll call 293, September 2, 2026, recorded at 4:35 p.m.

A majority is not an amendment.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona moved it. The text would have written this sentence into the Constitution: the Supreme Court shall be composed of nine justices, one Chief Justice and eight associates. The Judiciary Committee had cleared it. The floor did not.

Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that nine had “worked well,” and that packing the court would turn it into “a political palooza.” Biggs told the chamber he was not arguing that nine is magic. He was arguing that a court whose size can move with the next election is not a court.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, ranking Democrat on Judiciary, called the resolution “another partisan power grab.” He said the current court is in a legitimacy crisis. That is a floor sentence. It is also a campaign sentence.

The roll was party line with one Democrat voting yes: Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina. That is what CBS, USA Today, Forbes, and Newsweek reported from the same vote. Do not add names the Clerk has not put in this file.

Even a House win would not have locked nine. An amendment still needs two-thirds in the Senate and 38 states. Johnson scheduled a midterm vote. He got a midterm clip. He did not get a Constitution.

The court is nine now because Congress set it there in 1869. Congress has changed the number seven times. It has not done so since Andrew Johnson was in the White House. Statute can be rewritten by statute. That is the whole point of the amendment, and the whole point of killing it.

Nine stayed nine today. The lock did not.

Sources
U.S. House Clerk, Floor Activity Summary, Sept. 2, 2026, Roll no. 293.
H.J. Res. 1 text.
CBS News, Caitlin Yilek, 4:50 p.m. ET.
Reuters, Nate Raymond and Richard Cowan.
USA Today, Zachary Schermele.
Forbes, Alison Durkee.
Speaker Johnson remarks, Tuesday.