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What basic foundation of American government did Roosevelt's court packing plan appear to interfere with?
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
In the simplest terms, Roosevelt attempted to violate the doctrine of "separation of powers," that the Constitution mandated to ensure no one branch of government becomes too powerful. Roosevelt tried to coerce Congress into passing the Judiciary Act of 1937, which would have allowed him to add as many as six new justices to the Supreme Court in order to dilute the votes of the original justices. If successful, President Roosevelt would have had de facto (not legal, but in practice) control over two independent branches of government.
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Under the Constitution, Supreme Court justices can not be removed for disagreeing with the President. Nor do they have a mandatory retirement age. So the "nine old men," as Roosevelt called them, could not be displaced. Roosevelt devised a scheme* to circumvent this constitutional provision by proposing to appoint one new justice for each sitting justice over the age of 70.5, to a maximum of six. This would have increased the size of the Court from nine to fifteen.
Roosevelt's intent was to override the majority on the Supreme Court by appointing liberal justices who supported the New Deal, and shifting the Court's ideology from conservative to liberal.
Very few people, including most members of Roosevelt's own Democratic party, supported the plan because they recognized it would give near-dictatorial power to the Executive Branch (President Roosevelt) by allowing him to control two of the three branches of government. The plan violated the Constitution's separation of powers and would have destroyed the Judicial Branch's independence.
Roosevelt's plan also attempted to override Congress' constitutional authority to set the size of the Supreme Court, another violation of the separation of powers that would set a dangerous precedent for the future.
Both parties in Congress recognized Roosevelt's plan was unconstitutional. The Senate voted 70-20 to refer Roosevelt's Bill to the Judiciary Committee for review, and the Bill died in committee. This allowed Congress to enforce the separation of powers without directly confronting the President.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
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