A JOINT RESOLUTION applying to the United States Congress under Article V of the United States Constitution to call for a convention proposing an amendment to the constitution fixing the number of justices of the United States Supreme Court at one chief justice and eight associate justices.

Section 1. WHEREAS, the United States Constitution does not set the number of justices that comprise the United States Supreme Court, but leaves it to Congress to ordain and establish both the Supreme Court and all inferior federal Courts; and

Section 2. WHEREAS, the number of Supreme Court justices has been used in the past as a political tool, with the number of justices being increased or decreased in order to allow or prevent presidents from being able to appoint justices to the court; and

Section 3. WHEREAS, in the Judiciary Act of 1789, the First Congress set the number of Supreme Court justices at six, with one chief justice and five associate justices; and

Section 4. WHEREAS, in the wake of the election of 1800, Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, and reduced the number of Supreme Court justices from six to five, effective upon the next vacancy in the Court, in order to deprive the President-elect, Thomas Jefferson, of the ability to fill the vacancy; and

Section 5. WHEREAS, Congress repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801 in January 1802, restoring the number of Supreme Court justices to six; and

Section 6. WHEREAS, in response to the increasing workload of the court, Congress increased the number of justices from six to seven in 1807, from seven to nine in 1837, and from nine to ten in 1863; and

Section 7. WHEREAS, in 1866, Congress again reduced the number of justices from ten to seven, effective upon the seats becoming vacant, to deprive President Andrew Johnson of the opportunity to fill the vacancies; and

Section 8. WHEREAS, in 1869, under President Ulysses Grant, Congress increased the number of justices from seven to nine; and

Section 9. WHEREAS, the number of Supreme Court justices has remained at nine since 1869, despite the attempt made by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937 to increase the number of justices on the court and reshape the federal judiciary, in response to what Roosevelt perceived as unfavorable rulings made by the court on policies enacted in response to the Great Depression;

Section 10. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota, that an application is hereby made to the Congress of the United States, as provided by Article V of the United States Constitution, to call a convention solely for the purpose of proposing an amendment to the United States Constitution fixing the number of justices of the United States Supreme Court at one chief justice and eight associate justices; and

Section 11. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the secretary of state shall transmit copies of this application to the president and secretary of the United States Senate; to the speaker and clerk of the United States House of Representatives; to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate; and to the presiding officers of each legislative house in the several states, requesting their cooperation; and

Section 12. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the United States Constitution, until the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states have made applications to Congress calling for a convention to fix the number of justices of the United States Supreme Court at one chief justice and eight associate justices; and

Section 13. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this application must be aggregated with the applications of the other states for the same purpose, provided that this application is not aggregated with any other application that seeks a convention to address any other issue.