Oct 25, 2020

Schmidt: Court should 'Keep Nine'

Posted Oct 25, 2020 11:18 AM

By NICK GOSNELL

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt doesn't like the idea of enlarging the Supreme Court, in fact he's joined support of the so-called “Keep Nine” amendment, a bipartisan proposal introduced last month in the U.S. House of Representatives by Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Denver Riggleman, R-Va.

"It's well settled, it's well accepted by folks of all different philosophies, different litigants and by the court itself," Schmidt said. "Justice Ginsburg said, nine seems to be a good number. The problem is, that number is not locked in the Constitution."

The proposed amendment would add 13 words to the U.S. Constitution. It would say, The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices.

"The court ought to be outside of that political debate," Schmidt said. "Nine is a good number. There's a process for selecting those nine. Everybody ought to play by the same rules and there shouldn't be an option for Republicans or Democrats who come up on the short end of that process to go out and change the rules after the fact by adding more justices."

A federal constitutional amendment must receive approval from two-thirds of the members of the U.S. House and Senate to be formally proposed, then the approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures to be ratified.