How is court packing an example of checks and balances in action?

Answer 1

Court-packing is an attempt by the sitting President to override checks and balances by nominating numerous members of his (or her) own party or ideology to the Supreme Court or other courts in the federal judiciary. This action generally skews decisions to accommodate the President's agenda for an extended period of time because Article III Courts (primarily US District Courts, US Courts of Appeals Circuit Courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States) award judges and justices lifetime appointments.

If the Congress is controlled or heavily influenced by the opposing political party, attempts at court-packing can be thwarted. Congress uses the power of checks and balances to prevent the President from achieving his goal.

Examples

One historical example is President John Adams' attempt to appoint a large number of Federalist judges to a reorganized and enlarged federal judiciary after he lost the 1800 Presidential election to Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson administration and incoming Congress was able to reverse many of Adams' appointments by repealing the Judiciary Act of 1801, which created the new judgeships. President Jefferson also withheld a number of low-level justice of the peace commissions, resulting in the landmark Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison, (1803).

Another example is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's scheme to increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court by drafting legislation that would place one new justice on the Court for each sitting justice over the age of 70.5, up to a maximum of six new justices (for a total of 15). Roosevelt's intent was to stop the Court from overturning New Deal legislation, an action that would give the President excessive influence over the Supreme Court. Congress stripped Roosevelt's plan from the Judiciary bill.