According to the U.S. Government website uscourts.gov, "Article III of the Constitution establishes the federal judiciary. Article III, Section I states that "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." The Judiciary Act of 1789 created a Supreme Court with six justices. "Shortly after the Civil War, the number of seats on the Court was fixed at nine. Today, there is one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court."
"80 is the average number of cases the Supreme Court agrees to hear each year—out of 7,000 to 8,000 petitions."
-Pew Trust "How the Supreme Court Decides Which Cases to Hear," 2020
The Supreme Court at the time of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, 1896. Justice Henry Billings Brown (standing, second from the left), who wrote the majority opinion for the case, was born in South Lee, Massachusetts, less than 10 miles from Du Bois Middle School!
The Supreme Court in 1954, who unanimously decided the Brown v. Board of Education case. This group of justices were known as the "Warren court," under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren (seated in the front row, 3rd from left).