Question: have there always been nine supreme court justices

Answer: No, 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.''