How Franklin roosevelt plan to alter the supreme court to win support for the new deal?

Answer 1

President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. To quickly alleviate immediate human needs for food and shelter as well as to stabilize the economy, Roosevelt created many new and innovative programs, known collectively as the New Deal. The New Deal programs were generally passed easily and quickly in Congress, especially in FDR's first 100 days in office. However, many of the programs, including the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Railroad Retirement Act, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act, were then struck down by the Supreme Court as exceeding the powers granted to the federal government under the U.S. Constitution.

After FDR's overwhelming victory in the 1936 Presidential election, he felt confident in proposing legislation that in effect would allow him to counter the negative opinion of New Deal reforms by the current Supreme Court. Although there were other judicial reforms in the bill, the crucial provision was one which would have allowed the President to appoint an additional member to the Supreme Court for every sitting justice over the age of 70, which would have resulted in a total of six new justices at the time the bill was introduced. This bill was referred to negatively as the "court-packing plan".

Of course, FDR's concern was not about the age of the justices but about his frustration with their conservative interpretation of the Constitution about the role of the national government. At the time FDR announced his plan, only one of the Justices on the Supreme Court (Harlan Stone) had been appointed by FDR. Two had been appointed by Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, but a strong majority (six out of nine) had been appointed by conservative Republican Presidents Taft, Harding and Hoover. Not all of the Justices voted in accordance with the views of the president who had appointed them, but there was a consistent majority voting to strike down New Deal legislation. By adding more justices of his own choosing who adhered to his broader view of federal powers under the Constitution, FDR planned to create a Supreme Court with a majority in favor of his innovative programs.

To FDR's surprise, his plan was sharply criticized not only by lawyers and legislators, but also the public. People understood that in fact FDR was seeking to control the Supreme Court, which under the Constitution was supposed to be a co-equal branch of the federal government. Public support for the plan existed was eroded further by the publishing of a Supreme Court opinion (on a case decided before the court-packing plan was announced), upholding Washington state's Minimum Wage law, and then by the retirement of Justice Van Devanter in June of 1937, allowing FDR to appoint a Justice more compatible with his views.

FDR's "court-packing plan" was never passed into law.