What does the U.S. Constitution say about the size of the Supreme Court?

What does the U.S. Constitution say about the size of the Supreme Court?

• A. It does not indicate how large the Court should be
• B. It specifies six, later amended to nine
• C. It specifies nine
• D. It suggests but does not mandate a Court of nine justices

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the Constitution creates the Supreme Court but does not fix its size. Article III vests judicial power in the Supreme Court and authorizes Congress to establish lower courts, but it does not specify how many justices must sit on the Court. That choice has always been left to Congress, which has passed statutes to set the number of justices at various times. The current nine justices date from a statute, not from constitutional text, and Congress could change that number again. So the best answer is that the Constitution does not indicate how large the Court should be. The other options presume a fixed number or a constitutional directive that doesn’t exist; those numbers come from congressional legislation, not the Constitution itself.

The key idea is that the Constitution creates the Supreme Court but does not fix its size. Article III vests judicial power in the Supreme Court and authorizes Congress to establish lower courts, but it does not specify how many justices must sit on the Court. That choice has always been left to Congress, which has passed statutes to set the number of justices at various times. The current nine justices date from a statute, not from constitutional text, and Congress could change that number again. So the best answer is that the Constitution does not indicate how large the Court should be. The other options presume a fixed number or a constitutional directive that doesn’t exist; those numbers come from congressional legislation, not the Constitution itself.