Size Counts

Enough evidence has been gathered to establish that entitled teen Pencilneck Kavanagh,  currently applying for a job as Supreme Court Justice, tried to rape an underage girl at one of his prep school parties. He was too drunk to hold her down, and she fought loose and got away. Everyone at her school heard about it. She's passed a lie-detector test. But it looks like the Republican senate, including Republican women senators, will find Kavanagh well-qualified and vote him in. The argument is that Kavanagh can, after all, represent a key part of America, the part that is white, male, privileged, wealthy and entitled to special private schooling and boyhood jinks like rape. 

If Pencilneck becomes the final vote needed to seal the corruption of our highest court, what can we do? 

Congress has the power to change the number of people on the Supreme Court. The original edition, in 1801, had 5 members. I mention this because three of the current members are originalists.  They need to shed those 3 members to get to the original number. 

 In 1807, 7 members huddled together in soiled black robes. Congress decided in 1837 that 9 members would be better, then went to 10 in 1863. By 1867 they realized that 7 was absolutely the best number, until 1869 when 9 was chosen again.

If the Democrats ever regain power, I suggest that 435 justices would be a good number. That may seem big, but I think I recall that in ancient Athens, mere juries (citizens chosen at random) were about that size, a nice cross-section of white male Greeks (not enslaved).