Sponsor
Al Green
Representative · D-TX
Representative · D-TX
The bill offers a way to reshape and speed the Supreme Court by adding seats—potentially broadening perspectives and reducing backlogs—at the cost of elevated politicization risk, institutional instability, and increased long-term federal expenses.
All Americans: Adding four seats could change the Court’s composition and allow more diverse viewpoints among justices, which may influence long-run legal interpretations and the direction of rights and policy rulings.
All Americans: Expanding the Court from nine to thirteen justices could increase judicial capacity, helping reduce caseload bottlenecks and speed resolution of cases.
All Americans: The expansion could be used for immediate political advantage, shifting judicial outcomes on major rights and policy issues and undermining the Court’s perceived neutrality.
All Americans: Rapid statutory change to the Court’s size may heighten institutional instability and reduce public confidence in judicial impartiality and the rule of law.
Taxpayers and federal employees: Increasing the number of justices raises long-term federal costs (salaries, staff, benefits) and ongoing budgetary obligations.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Modifies 28 U.S.C. § 1 to increase the number of Associate Justices from eight to twelve and to change the lower-number quorum reference from six to eight.
Official title: Representative Green's Original Legislation to increase from 9 to 13 the number of justices of the Supreme Court.
Introduced May 4, 2026 by Al Green · Last progress May 4, 2026
Changes the statutory text that sets the Supreme Court's composition by increasing the number of Associate Justices specified in 28 U.S.C. § 1 and by raising the smaller-number quorum referenced in that section. The bill replaces the word "eight" with "twelve" for the number of Associate Justices and replaces "six" with "eight" for the smaller-number quorum, altering the court's statutory composition without providing funding or implementation details.