FDR packed the court in the 30’s after failing in his try to expand the number of justices.
He lost that battle in Congress.
Eventually the Justices he found troublesome retired or died leaving him free to appoint people more amenable to instruction ~ servile lackeys to a man.
If the Supreme Court were reduced to just one member, the Chief Justice, we'd have a top administrative/legal structure highly representative of the ancient Roman system of TWO TRIBUNES, except their's was a bit more complex and less responsive to changing conditions ~ almost let Hannibal conquer Rome in fact.
So much for the wisdom of the founders ~ we still don't have the Executive/Judicial interface just right. Permanancy in office didn't really make the judges independent ~ just allowed them to be more partisan.
FDR packed the court in the 30’s after failing in his try to expand the number of justices.
FDR tried to by appointing 3 more judges to the court, but even the Speaker of the House(DEM) was appalled. I had to laugh when Bush 43 was accused by the Democraps of “packing the court” ,when he was only exercising his right to fill a vacancy.