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President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] attempted to expand the court in 1937. His proposal envisioned the appointment of one additional justice for each incumbent justice who reached the age of 70{{nbsp}}years 6{{nbsp}}months and refused retirement, up to a maximum bench of 15 justices. The proposal was ostensibly to ease the burden of the [[Docket (court)|docket]] on elderly judges, but the actual purpose was widely understood as an effort to "pack" the court with justices who would support Roosevelt's New Deal.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mintz |first=S. |year=2007 |title=The New Deal in Decline |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=479 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505032845/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=479 |archive-date=May 5, 2008 |access-date=October 27, 2009 |work=Digital History |publisher=University of Houston}}</ref> The plan, usually called the "[[Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937|court-packing plan]]", failed in Congress after members of Roosevelt's own [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] believed it to be unconstitutional. It was defeated 70–20 in the Senate, and the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Senate Judiciary Committee]] reported that it was "essential to the continuance of our constitutional democracy" that the proposal "be so emphatically rejected that its parallel will never again be presented to the free representatives of the free people of America."<ref>{{cite web |last=Hodak |first=George |year=2007 |title=February 5, 1937: FDR Unveils Court Packing Plan |url=http://abajournal.com/magazine/article/february_5_1937/ |access-date=January 29, 2009 |work=ABAjournal.com |publisher=American Bar Association |archive-date=August 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815154911/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/february_5_1937/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/court-packing-plan-of-1937 |title=TSHA &#124; Court-Packing Plan of 1937 |access-date=April 4, 2021 |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506124559/https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/court-packing-plan-of-1937 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://time.com/5702280/court-packing-history/ |title=Some Democrats Want to Make the Supreme Court Bigger. Here's the History of Court Packing |date=October 17, 2019 |access-date=April 4, 2021 |archive-date=February 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201160941/https://time.com/5702280/court-packing-history/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-fdr-lost-his-brief-war-on-the-supreme-court-2 |title=How FDR lost his brief war on the Supreme Court – National Constitution Center |access-date=April 4, 2021 |archive-date=March 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329041250/https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-fdr-lost-his-brief-war-on-the-supreme-court-2 |url-status=live}}</ref>
 
The expansion of a 5–4 conservative majority to a 6–3 supermajority during the [[presidency of Donald Trump]] led to analysts calling the court the most conservative since the 1930s andas well as calls for an expansion in the court's size to fix what some saw as an imbalance, with [[Republican Party (US)|Republicans]] having now appointed 14 of the last 18 justices.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Biskupic |first=Joan |date=September 26, 2020 |title=Analysis: The Supreme Court hasn't been this conservative since the 1930s {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/politics/supreme-court-conservative/index.html |access-date=March 20, 2024 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Totenberg |first=Nina |date=July 5, 2022 |title=The Supreme Court is the most conservative in 90 years |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/07/05/1109444617/the-supreme-court-conservative |access-date=March 19, 2024 |work=PBS}}</ref> In April 2021, during the [[117th United States Congress|117th Congress]], some Democrats in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] introduced the Judiciary Act of 2021, a bill to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 seats. It met differingdivided views within the party, and Speaker of the House [[Nancy Pelosi]] did not bring it to the floor for a vote.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-packing-bill-pelosi-house-floor/ |title=Pelosi has "no plans" to bring bill expanding Supreme Court to House floor |website=[[CBS News]] |date=April 15, 2021 |access-date=June 25, 2022 |archive-date=June 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625182141/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-packing-bill-pelosi-house-floor/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-confirmation-process-irreparably-broken-senators-say-yes-rcna22608 |title=Is the Supreme Court confirmation process irreparably broken? Some senators say yes |website=[[NBC News]] |date=April 2, 2022 |access-date=June 25, 2022 |archive-date=June 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625182141/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-confirmation-process-irreparably-broken-senators-say-yes-rcna22608 |url-status=live }}</ref> Shortly after taking office in January 2021, Joe Biden established a [[Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States|presidential commission]] to study possible reforms to the Supreme Court. The commission's December 2021 final report discussed but took no position on expanding the size of the court.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/584791-biden-supreme-court-study-panel-unanimously-approves-final-report/ |work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |title=Biden Supreme Court study panel unanimously approves final report |first=John |last=Kruzel |date=December 7, 2021 |access-date=October 8, 2022 |archive-date=October 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008222225/https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/584791-biden-supreme-court-study-panel-unanimously-approves-final-report/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
 
At nine members, the U.S. Supreme Court is one of the smallest supreme courts in the world. David Litt argues the court is too small to represent the perspectives of a country the United States' size.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Litt |first=David |title=Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think |publisher=Ecco |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-06-287936-3 |page=352}}</ref> Lawyer and legal scholar [[Jonathan Turley]] advocates for 19 justices, with the court being gradually expanded by two new members per presidential term, bringing the U.S. Supreme Court to a similar size as its counterparts in other developed countries. He says that a bigger court would reduce the power of the [[Swing vote|swing justice]], ensure the court has "a greater diversity of views", and make confirmation of new justices less politically contentious.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Turley |first=Jonathan |date=February 1, 2017 |title=Op-Ed: Battling over Neil Gorsuch is beside the point: The Supreme Court needs an institutional overhaul |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-turley-supreme-court-reform-20170201-story.html |access-date=February 22, 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Turley |first=Jonathan |date=April 4, 2019 |title=Op-Ed: Make the Supreme Court bigger, but not the Democrats' way |url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-turley-supreme-court-packing-democrats-20190404-story.html |access-date=February 22, 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
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