The Supreme Court from 1860-1874ish is fascinating. I was listening to a podcast about all of the issues that dealt with the structure of the court during that time.
Things I never realized-
1. The original Supreme Court justices had to ride the circuit courts. So they usually lived in that circuit.
2. Adding California caused some issues with that and it was temporarily changed.
3. Republicans limited the size of the court during A. johnson's presidency due to issues with cash money and Reconstruction.

Really interesting stuff and I just scratched the surface, I think.

Which podcast?

Regarding 3, they were just getting it back to 9 because Lincoln had packed the court with one judge for the same reason Biden will.

We The People

BQ78 said:

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Regarding 3, they were just getting it back to 9 because Lincoln had packed the court with one judge for the same reason Biden will.

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It was my understanding that Fields had to be added because he was from California and the judges still had to ride the circuit courts. So no other judges would be able to cover their area and California at the same time.

I've read it was because their were legal threats to the blockade of southern ports at the beginning of the war and he needed one more vote on the supreme court to ensure there would not be a challenge.

BQ78 said:

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I've read it was because their were legal threats to the blockade of southern ports at the beginning of the war and he needed one more vote on the supreme court to ensure there would not be a challenge.

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So part of it appears to be redrawing the circuits to cut the slave states out. Slave states were part of 5 Circuits and that seems to be why the courts tended to be pro-slavery. They redrew the lines to put all the slave states within 2 circuits and then added the California(western) circuit. CA was added because more people were living there and it appears a number of major cases dealing with western issues were not being taken care of. And then you have the challenge to the blockade.

BQ78 said:

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Regarding 3, they were just getting it back to 9 because Lincoln had packed the court with one judge for the same reason Biden will.

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Biden will likely not hold the Senate. It will be interesting so see who he'd nominate with a Republican Senate. It's likely that the only selection Biden would get would be Breyer.