What was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's court-packing plan of 1937?

Answer 1

President Roosevelt tried to put in place many innovative and reforming "New Deal" programs in order to get the country out of the Depression. At that time the prevailing opinion on governments taking actions that were more like actions a private business would take was that it was most likely unconstitutional. Roosevelt had six of his projects, and one government agency, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt drafted a bill for Congress titled the "Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937," which became popularly known as the "Court-packing Plan," for Roosevelt's attempt to add as many as six new Justices to the Supreme Court.

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's plan included a broad overhaul and modernization of the federal court system, but its most important feature was a proposal to appoint one new Justice for every sitting Justice over the age of 70.5, up to a maximum of six members (which would have increased the size of the Court to 15 justices). Not coincidentally, the number of older justices who would be affected by this plan was six.

Roosevelt hoped adding liberal justices who supported the New Deal would dilute the votes of the conservative majority opposition and allow his progressive legislation to stand. In his opinion, the incumbent justices were too old and set in their ways to appreciate the bold scope of the President's plans to revive the economy.

Roosevelt's proposed legislation failed when the Senate voted 70-20 to return the bill to the Judiciary Committee with explicit instructions to strip it of its court-packing provisions. The bill died in committee.

Answer 2

all is correct