I mean why do we have 9 members of the supreme court?

Answer 1

They've tried several different numbers. The Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number at six. The number grew to 7 in 1807, then to 9 in 1837, and 10 in 1863. The Judicious Circuits Act in 1866 set the number to 7. The Circuit Judges Act of 1869 set the number to 9, where it has remained.

Even numbers don't work, because sometimes you get ties. Ties aren't any good. So, you have to have an odd number. Congress set it at 9 for a reason, and a good reason. If you have too few members, then it's very possible that you aren't going to have enough opinions and explanations to really, fully explore the Constitutionality of cases. If you have too many people on the bench, well, then it takes too long for the cases, and it would become a jarbled mess. It takes long enough for the members to vote on whether or not to hear a case, and then to vote on the case itself. It'd take a lot longer if you have more than 9. So, you have to settle somewhere in between. 9 has worked well, so far.

Answer 2

9 is a number used in witchcraft. We should have at least 10
members-- that would be a better figure. 10 is one of God's numbers. Man chose 9. Why is that? Have there been any good judgements coming from the so-called Supreme Court lately?
Check it out sometime. There might be something to it.

Answer 3

The Constitution does not specify the size of the Supreme Court; instead, Congress has 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. The court was expanded to seven members in 1807, nine in 1837 and ten in 1863. In 1866, however, Congress wished to deny President Andrew Johnson any Supreme Court appointments, and therefore 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. By 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 seventy but did not retire from the bench, until the Court reached a maximum size of fifteen justices. Ostensibly, this was 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. The plan failed in Congress and the court changed course (see the switch in time that saved nine). In any case, Roosevelt's long tenure in the White House allowed him to appoint a large number of Justices.

"The switch in time that saved nine" was the name given by the press to the apparent sudden shift by Justice Owen J. Roberts from the conservative wing of the Supreme Court (represented by the Four Horsemen) to the liberal wing (represented by Three Musketeers) in the case West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937). Roberts joined Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and Justices Louis Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo, and Harlan Fiske Stone in upholding a Washington State minimum wage law.

The decision was handed down less than two months after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced his Court-packing Bill and it was widely seen as a reaction to that bill. Justice Roberts shifted his vote before President Roosevelt actually submitted his court-packing proposal to Congress. However, Roosevelt made his proposal public on March 9, 1937 during his 9th Fireside Chat. (See Court-Packing Bill.) The high court's decision in West Coast Hotel was not handed down until after Roosevelt's public announcement (decision was issued on March 29, 1937 (See West Coast Hotel.) Thus, Roosevelt's public announcement may have contributed to Justice Roberts' motivation for switching from his previous freedom of contract decisions.

The switch, together with the resignation of Justice Willis Van Devanter a month later are often viewed as having contributed to the defeat of the Bill, preserving the size of the Supreme Court at 9 justices, as it remains to this day.

Answer 4

An odd number offsets a tie and its better than 5 or 7, so there are more opinions, but not too many opinions.

Answer 5

the other answer was close, it once was 7 judges, and is now 9. it's an odd number so that there will not be tie votes!

Answer 6

That is the number that Congress set. It used to be 6, a long time ago.

Answer 7

So that the current administration can always have them snugly in pocket no matter the difference in opinion

Answer 8

Odd number so there won't be ties.