Science

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

Republicans in the U.S. Senate proposed a new constitutional amendment on Feb. 7 that would prevent federal lawmakers from increasing the number of justices—currently set at nine—on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The new joint congressional resolution, the Keep Nine Amendment, was introduced after Democrats in the previous Congress proposed a series of measures to boost the number of justices and enforce ethics standards at the nation’s highest court. Republicans at the time criticized the legislation.

Congressional Democrats have been demanding ethics reforms in recent years as reports of justices not publicly disclosing gifts have surfaced. They have also grown increasingly incensed by Supreme Court rulings they disagree with on issues such as abortion, gun rights, affirmative action, environmental policy, and the power of the administrative state. Republicans have countered that efforts to regulate the court are unconstitutional and motivated by partisan animus.

The current limit of nine justices was established by the federal Judiciary Act of 1869. The number has not changed since then. Supreme Court justices are nominated by the sitting president and confirmation requires a simple majority vote by the Senate.

Amending the U.S. Constitution is difficult. Article V of the Constitution provides that an amendment can move forward only if it is approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by two-thirds of states participating in a special constitutional convention. It must then be ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the states to become part of the Constitution.

The resolution states that the amendment would become effective if it is ratified “within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification.”

The Democrats’ “court-packing scheme would erase the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and destroy historic precedent,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

“The Court is a co-equal branch of government, and our Keep Nine Amendment will ensure that it remains independent from political pressure.”

Co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said the amendment is needed to check Democrats’ “efforts to undermine the integrity of the Court.”

He said lawmakers on the other side of the aisle want “to use the Court to advance policy goals they can’t accomplish electorally.”

Among other co-sponsors of the amendment are Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).

Several bills have been introduced in Congress in recent years to expand the court beyond nine justices.

In September 2024, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) unveiled legislation to add six justices to the Supreme Court, raising the total number of members to 15.

“The Supreme Court is in crisis and bold solutions are necessary to restore the public trust,” Wyden said.

In May 2023, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to raise the cap on justices to 13.

“Our most fundamentally held freedoms are under attack from an illegitimate, far-right United States Supreme Court,” Markey said. “And if we fail to act, it will only get worse.”

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the Democrat minority on the Senate Judiciary Committee. No reply was received by publication time.

President Donald Trump has directed Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to audit the Pentagon, after the Defense Department failed its seventh audit in a row.

During an interview with Fox News‘ Bret Baier set to air before the Super Bowl, Trump said he was directing DOGE to investigate both the Department of Education and the Pentagon.

“We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump said.

Trump tells @BretBaier he will direct @elonmusk and DOGE to investigate Department of Education and Pentagon for fraud and abuse. pic.twitter.com/uw1i5ZlKML

— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) February 9, 2025

On Friday, Trump said during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that he was directing DOGE to investigate “Pentgon, education, just about everything,” adding that he thinks Musk will find “a lot” of waste, fraud and abuse.

“Sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad, but I don’t think proportionally you’ll see anything like we just saw,” Trump said, referring to USAID – where the new administration has placed 97% of the staff on leave. Last week, Trump said that billions of dollars have been stolen by USAID.

Reviewing the Pentagon will be no small task for an agency which sees roughly $800 billion flow through it, and has never managed to pass its own financial audits with the exception of the Marine Corps.

The Pentagon employs nearly 3.3 million service members and civilians.

Musk, who has been appointed as a “special government employee,” is one of Trump’s key advisers, who has set a goal for DOGE to cut up to $2 trillion in federal expenses by July 2026.

This is what we’re dealing with everywhere in government
pic.twitter.com/ObsfvINEQ2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025

Last week, DOGE claimed that it had managed to save over $1 billion by slashing contracts related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), through halting “the hiring of people into unnecessary positions, the deletion of DEI, and stopping improper payments to foreign organizations,” as The Burning Platform noted on Sunday.

On Saturday, Musk said that DOGE and the US Treasury Department have agreed to new anti-fraud measures aimed at preventing tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent government entitlement payments each year, including the following:

– Require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible.

– All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale, but simply requiring that SOME attempt be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING!

– The DO-NOT-PAY list of entities known to be fraudulent or people who are dead or are probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match Congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored. Also, it can currently take up to a year to get on this list, which is far too long. This list should be updated at least weekly, if not daily.

The above super obvious and necessary changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not anyone from @DOGE. It is ridiculous that these changes didn’t exist already!

Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.

When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!!

This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently defended DOGE’s actions at Treasury – telling Bloomberg in an interview with Bloomberg that the DOGE team is made up of highly trained professionals and “not some roving band running around doing things,” possibly in reference to claims by critics that DOGE has embraced and is applying the adage “move fast and break things,” which is part of the Silicon Valley start-up culture of being innovative, nimble, and disruptive.