If Congress reduces the number of seats to 7 (by overriding Obama’s veto, in your fantasy scenario), then the Court would stay at 9 (remember, they’re lifetime appointments) until someone retires or dies, and then would drop to 8 with no replacement named, and after the next death or retirement it would drop to 7 and stay there. So, basically, it would take power away from the next president to fill the next two vacancies in the Court, which is nowhere near as good as having the next Republican president fill the next few vacancies. The only time that has been done was after Lincoln was assassinated and Congress (which had a Republican supermajority) didn’t want his Democrat VP Andrew Johnson filling vacancies in the newly expanded 10-seat Court, so Congress reduced the number of Justices to 9 (overriding Johnson’s veto) and then the next time a justice retired the vacancybwent unfilled and the seat was eliminated.
Actually, they knocked off 2 seats, both held by Democrats who died in office in 1865 and 1867, respectively: James Moore Wayne, appointed by President Jackson (who occupied the 5th Associate Justice seat) and John Catron (who was the first and only one to occupy the 7th Associate Justice seat), also appointed by the outgoing Jackson in the Spring of 1837 (who was the former TN Chief Justice and Van Buren’s campaign manager here in the state).
More whisting dixie, do you agree with me that a federal gay marriage ban passed by Congress would be constitutional under the 14th amendment? Would any conservative Justice uphold it?