This Is How FDR Tried to Pack the Supreme Court

[LiberalFighter]

David Jolly brought up expanding the court.

This Is How FDR Tried to Pack the Supreme Court

But in the late 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to put restrictions on the court when it came to age. Largely seen as a political ploy to change the court for favorable rulings on New Deal legislation, the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, commonly referred to as the “court-packing plan,” was Roosevelt’s attempt to appoint up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court for every justice older than 70 years, 6 months, who had served 10 years or more.

Dr. David B. Woolner, senior fellow and resident historian of the Roosevelt Institute and author of The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace, says it’s important to note the timing of this bill, which took place during the Great Depression. “We were in the midst of the worst economic crisis in our history,” he says. “Roosevelt’s response to this economic crisis was to engage in a series of programs designed to manage a capitalist system in such a way as to make it work for the average American. And because he wasn’t particularly ideological, he was willing to try all kinds of things.”

Over the course of the Depression, Roosevelt was pushing through legislation and, beginning in May 1935, the Supreme Court began to strike down a number of the New Deal laws. “Over the next 13 months, the court struck down more pieces of legislation than at any other time in U.S. history,” Woolner says.

Roosevelt’s first New Deal program—in particular, its centerpiece, the National Recovery Administration, along with parts of the Agricultural Adjustment Act—had been struck down by unanimous and near-unanimous votes. This frustrated Roosevelt and got him thinking about adding justices to the court, says Peter Charles Hoffer, history professor at the University of Georgia and author of The Supreme Court: An Essential History. When he won the election of 1936 in a landslide, Roosevelt decided to float the plan.

It met instant opposition.

[Silent Type]

1. Packing the Court didn't work then, and doubt it would work today. Interesting article.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Except the court wasn't packed.

[Silent Type]

5. It was proposed and soundly opposed.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. FDR I believe appointed 4 or 5 justices

two of which were his former AG's.

But today, number of justices is an arms race. We have ethical problems, influence peddling, perhaps bribery. And Chuck Grassley could still be appointed. There should be more restrictions on length of service, age, perhaps re-confirmation hearings. The Court is too ideological. These are not jurists, they are political hacks.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Those restrictions would require a constitutional amendment.

[delisen]

6. US pop. 1936 was 128 million; now 336 million

The Supreme Court is turning down cases it should be accepting. One reason is our population growth.

This is a reason for expansion.

[BigmanPigman]

7. I watched Ken Burns "The Roosevelts"

Apparently many Dems who supported him were not very happy with his move. However, a lot of the justices on the SCOTUS died while Roosevelt was still in office so he actually did end up getting rid of some.