Agree...but I DO think of a Chief Justice as set apart from the eight justices. I didn’t hear the remark or completely read the faux pas, but wouldn’t suspect that he’d be thinking as I do.
The MSM would spin it anyway. If Perry had said 9 they would have laughed and said "oopps" you are wrong there are only 8.
I do not blame him for forgetting that one, I have been trying to do the same.