Answer
Yes. 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. Roosevelt hoped to build more support for New Deal programs.
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.
For more information, see Related Questions, below.
The Supreme Court
No. Congress passes legislation.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted to "pack" the Supreme Court in 1937, not 1930. His idea was to increase the number of justices, and appoint his own people to fill all of the new vacancies. While technically legal, most people thought it was bad form, and the idea was never implemented. And the advent of the European war in 1939 (which was obviously coming even in 1936) calmed down a lot of the political turmoil within the US as the '30s came to a close.
President Roosevelt was unhappy with the US Supreme Court because they ruled six of eight New Deal Programs and one government agency unconstitutional. President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress hoped to improve economic conditions in the United States during and immediately after the Great Depression through a series of programs known as the New Deal. Unfortunately, Roosevelt inherited a court full of older justices who disapproved of the legislation, and declared six of Congress' eight major Acts unconstitutional, thwarting Roosevelt's plans. Roosevelt was angry with the justices, whom he referred to as the "Nine Old Men," for refusing to allow New Deal policies to work as intended. In Roosevelt's mind, the Supreme Court presented a major obstacle to economic recovery and stabilization because of their conservatism. For more information, see Related Questions, below.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated eight justices to the US Supreme Court, which is the second highest number of appointments after President Washington, who nominated eleven justices.Hugo Black........................................1937-1971Stanley Foreman Reed........................1938-1957Felix Frankfurter.................................1939-1962William O. Douglas.............................1939-1975Frank Murphy.....................................1940-1949James Francis Byrnes..........................1941-1942Robert Houghtwood Jackson................1941-1954Wiley Rutledge...................................1943-1949
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Apex-type question, not reworded, similar question exists
Apex-type question, not reworded, similar question exists
Yes. President Roosevelt drafted legislation called the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 that would have allowed him to appoint one new justice to the US Supreme Court for each sitting justice over the age of 70.5. Roosevelt intended to place six new justices who were in favor of his New Deal programs and swing the ideology of the Court from conservative to liberal so they would stop overturning New Deal legislation as unconstitutional.
No. The President who attempted a court-packing plan to protect his New Deal legislation was Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his proposed Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937.For more information on President Roosevelt, court-packing and New Deal legislation, see Related Questions, below.
President Roosevelt didn't change the size of the US Supreme Court; he drafted legislation in 1937 that proposed an increase of one new justice for each sitting justice over the age of 70.5, up to a maximum of six new justices, for a total Court size of 15. Congress recognized the president was attempting to pack the Court with with justices who would support his New Deal programs, and stripped this provision from legislation. The size of the US Supreme Court was set at nine in the Judiciary Act of 1869, and has remained unchanged since that time.
Justice Owen Roberts
Virtually everyone. President Roosevelt's plan was unpopular with the public, members of the Republican party, and even most members of his own Democratic party. The Supreme Court undoubtedly disagreed (although a large portion of the idea originated with one of the justices before he joined the US Supreme Court). Congress disagreed; the Senate Judiciary Committee stripped the court-packing plan from the proposed legislation.
No. President Roosevelt wrote a plan that would allow him to appoint one new justice for each current justice over the age of 70.5 years old, up to a maximum of six additional justices, which would expand the size of the Supreme Court from nine to fifteen. Congress understood the President's idea was unconstitutional, so they refused to pass the legislation. Eventually, the old members of the Supreme Court began retiring and passing away, so Roosevelt was able to appoint eight replacements without adding to the size of the Court.
The Supreme Court
make a bill that placed more justices on the Supreme Court
President Franklin D. Roosevelt