White House Address
President Biden
March 20, 2021
My Fellow Americans
Today I will be signing the Judiciary Act of 2021 that increases the number of Supreme Court justices from 9 to 13. This brings the number of justices into alignment with the number of circuit courts as was the case in an earlier period of our history. By not specifying the number of justices in our constitution, our founding fathers were clearly encouraging that number to change based on the current requirements of our republic.
I am also excited to nominate four new justices to be confirmed by the United States Senate. These new justices will provide a fresh and diverse perspective based on their varied experience in civil and voting rights, environmental law, finance and technology. As a body now, these new justices will be particularly qualified to interpret law on contemporary and complex issues and how they align with our 234-year-old Constitution. Of equal importance however - they will understand how their decisions impact the lives of ordinary Americans.
There are two fundamental reasons that require us to take this action today. In the first place, the current court has simply not been able to keep up with our growing population and the increased legal and technical complexity of the cases presented. The population of our nation has grown almost 10 times since they last codified the number of justices into law. Also of course our world is a much more complicated place than it use to be and our courts have to be able to reflect that. Currently the Supreme Court is only able to hear about 1% of the total cases that are presented to them. These new judges will greatly help the court provide justice to a far greater number of deserving Americans.
The second reason that this action must be taken is that we find ourselves today in a true constitutional crisis where the legitimacy of our courts is questioned. The simple fact is that one political party has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections and yet presidents from the other party have now appointed two thirds of the current justices. This has resulted in a Supreme Court that is completely untethered from the mainstream of American jurisprudence as well as from the needs of the American people as they have expressed themselves at the ballot box.
By adding these new justices to the court, we will not only help address the overwhelming workload of the court, but we will bring the court more in line with the American mainstream.
You have heard the voices on this issue from the opposition who have called this a “power grab” and have asked what will keep future administrations from adding 10 or 50 new judges at will? To them I say, “Join me in a creating a constitutional amendment which will limit the number of judges to be aligned with the number of circuit courts for all time.” Perhaps together we can work to take the politics out of our courts and let them focus on providing justice for all Americans.
God bless you all and God bless the United States of America.