“HotAir” has become pretty much unreadable anymore. Allahpundit is a Trump hating d*&chbag and Jazz Shaw is barely right 20% of the time. As for the rest, pfffffft.
2. There haven’t always been nine justices on the court.
The U.S. Constitution established the Supreme Court but left it to Congress
to decide how many justices should make up the court. The Judiciary Act of
1789 set the number at six: a chief justice and five associate justices.
In 1807, Congress increased the number of justices to seven; in 1837, the
number was bumped up to nine; and in 1863, it rose to 10. In 1866, Congress
passed the Judicial Circuits Act, which shrank the number of justices back
down to seven and prevented President Andrew Johnson from appointing
anyone new to the court. Three years later, in 1869, Congress raised the
number of justices to nine, where it has stood ever since. In 1937, in an
effort to create a court more friendly to his New Deal programs, President
Franklin Roosevelt attempted to convince Congress to pass legislation
that would allow a new justice to be added to the court—for a total of
up to 15 members—for every justice over 70 who opted not to retire.
Congress didn’t go for FDR’s plan.
https://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-u-s-supreme-court