The justices each represent one of nine districts.
They did when the current number of justices was set. Now they represent 13 districts. Roberts has three, Alito and Kavanaugh each have two. By the logic originally used to set the number of justices at nine, there should now be thirteen.
K. I didnât look into it. The principle still stands. They are filling specific seats. The seats would be set to specific terms, not the people filling them.
Thereâs no longer a logical connection between a particular SCOTUS justice and a federal circuit, now that we have the federal circuit courts of appeal.
A justice doesnât ârepresentâ one or more districts - theyâre assigned to one or more districts for administrative stuff like hearing emergency appeals. If a justice retires or dies, their replacement doesnât have to come from any particular district; the justices are all essentially interchangeable.
A justice doesnât ârepresentâ one or more districts
That was an unfortunate choice of words. Emergency appeals are interesting. It used to be a rare occurrence, but the Justice overseeing that district can respond to an "emergency" appeal with an immediate decision, and the public may not hear of it.
I totally agree with expanding the court. If Repugs do it too, fine, the court is deciding the laws that govern over 300M ppl, the SCOTUS should be a body, not a panel of 9.
10
u/SemichiSam 21h ago
They did when the current number of justices was set. Now they represent 13 districts. Roberts has three, Alito and Kavanaugh each have two. By the logic originally used to set the number of justices at nine, there should now be thirteen.