President Joe Biden on Friday formed a bipartisan commission to study potential U.S. Supreme Court changes including expanding the number of justices beyond the current nine, a goal of some liberal Democrats hoping to end its conservative majority.
Under an executive order signed by the Democratic president, the 36-member commission will consider the "merits and legality" of potential reforms to the nation's top judicial body including adding justices or imposing term limits on their service instead of the current lifetime appointments.
The number of Supreme Court justices has remained at nine since 1869, but Congress has the power to change the number and did so several times before that. Imposing term limits would likely require a constitutional amendment, though some scholars have proposed ways to accomplish it by statute.