SAVE America Act v. Packing Supreme Court: Devil in the Details

In February 2026, the U.S. House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act to require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and an approved form of government photo ID to cast a ballot.

Every House Republican voted for the SAVE America Act, but every Democrat except one voted against this election integrity measure.

When the Senate sought to consider the House-passed bill in March 2026, every Republican supported the proposal, and every Democrat opposed it. The unanimous opposition of Democrats prevented the Senate from attaining the 60 votes needed under Senate rules and the bill failed to proceed.

President Donald Trump and many conservative activists have urged Senate Republicans to invoke a procedural “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules so that the SAVE America Act and all legislation can proceed with a simple majority.

Many Senate Republicans, including several of its most conservative members, oppose lowering the 60-vote threshold. They believe it will damage the institution’s deliberative nature and make it harder to block extreme Democrat legislation when there is a Democrat president with House and Senate majorities.

While many conservatives have vented their frustration against Senate Republicans, Democrats see another villain thwarting their efforts to implement an increasingly liberal agenda: the Republican-appointed majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Sept. 2, 2026, the House voted on a proposed constitutional amendment to keep nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court—the number for the past 157 years. The “Keep 9” proposal comes as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., says “everything is on the table” to deal with a Supreme Court majority that Democrats find objectionable.

Former House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., called for adding four justices to the Supreme Court in a recent “Meet the Press” interview. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have called for adding at least four new seats to the court. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is “warming to the idea.”

The views on court-packing expressed by these current Democrat leaders stand in stark contrast to those of Clinton-appointed former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who opposed court-packing.

In 1983, then-Sen. Joe Biden called President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 attempt at court-packing a “bonehead idea” and a “terrible, terrible mistake.” During a presidential primary debate in 2019, Biden said adding more justices to the Supreme Court would destroy “any credibility the court has at all.”

Conservative opponents of the Democrats’ court-packing scheme argue that Democrats and their liberal activists want a Supreme Court that will view the Constitution as a “living, breathing document” that can be interpreted to impose a far-left agenda on America.

The next time there is a Democrat president and Democrat majorities in Congress, many conservatives believe they will eliminate the Senate’s 60-vote requirement to enact a wish list of liberal legislation. This list will include a national election law that overrides every photo ID, citizenship verification, or clean voter rolls requirement that Republicans have been able to pass at the state or federal level.

The House vote on the “Keep 9” amendment fell short of the two-thirds needed to advance a constitutional amendment. Consistent with their votes against the SAVE America Act, only one Democrat voted to “Keep 9,” while 205 voted against it.

The independence of the Supreme Court must be preserved from a future Congress and president manipulating its size for political gain. And size does matter: the smaller the size, the less opportunity for stalemates or legislating from the bench.

Republicans and their conservative allies should recognize who their real opponents are and turn their attention to an election that is less than two months away.

And voters should know these details behind the debate to discern differences between the SAVE America Act and packing the Supreme Court before they decide which party should control our Congress come November.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

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