Why did Roosevelt ask Congress for a bill that would allow him to add justices to the US Supreme Court?

Answer 1

Roosevelt's court-packing plan was intended to prevent the US Supreme Court from declaring his New Deal legislation unconstitutional by adding justices who favored his policies and to change the balance of the Court toward liberalism.

Explanation

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.

Although the bill endeavored a broad overhaul and modernization of the federal court system, its most important provision was the proposal that one new Justice be appointed for every sitting Justice over the age of 70.5, up to a maximum of six members (which could potentially have brought the total count to 15).

The motivation behind this change was the President's frustration with the conservative majority opposition to his New Deal legislation. Roosevelt believed 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. He hoped that, by stacking the Court with more liberal Justices, those who shared his ideology, he would create an atmosphere more favorable toward his policies.

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 US Supreme Court attended to Roosevelt's power play and became more supportive of the New Deal. The older, more conservative, justices began retiring in 1937. President Roosevelt eventually got his wish for a new Court when he nominated eight new justices to the bench between 1937 and 1943.

Answer 2

he wanted to have more power in the courts so that his, most controversial, new deal could be passed and viewed as Constitutional.