have there always been nine supreme court justices
The Court first convened on February 2, 1790, with six judges where only five of its six initial positions were filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session: ``(T)he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street, a few steps from Federal Hall. Symbolically, the moment was pregnant with promise for the republic, this birth of a new national institution whose future power, admittedly, still existed only in the eyes and minds of just a few visionary Americans. Impressively bewigged and swathed in their robes of office, Chief Justice John Jay and three associate justices -- William Cushing of Massachusetts, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, and John Blair of Virginia -- sat augustly before a throng of spectators and waited for something to happen. Nothing did. They had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, and everyone went home.''
Supreme Court of the United States