Okla-homey
2/5/2010, 06:13 AM
February 5, 1937: Roosevelt announces "court-packing" plan
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9175/courtsupremecourt.jpg
The Supreme Court of the United States. Notice Moses, the Ten Commandments, and other biblical imagery on the frieze above the porch.
73 years ago, on February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7148/court509pxfdrin1933.jpg
FDR, considered a populist saint by many, a socialist devil by others
Unquestionably, Roosevelt was trying to "pack" the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal. As you'll see, the Court got the message, relented in its opposition to FDR's programs, which grew the federal government's influence in the lives of ordinary Americans, and this shift has been called, "the switch in time that saved nine."
During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government.
Flushed with his landslide reelection in 1936, President Roosevelt issued a proposal in February 1937 to provide retirement at full pay for all members of the court over 70. If a justice refused to retire, an "assistant" with full voting rights was to be appointed, thus ensuring Roosevelt a liberal majority.
Most Republicans and even many Democrats in Congress opposed the so-called "court-packing" plan.
In April, however, before the bill came to a vote in Congress, two Supreme Court justices came over to the liberal side and by a narrow majority upheld as constitutional the National Labor Relations Act, which strengthened unions and the Social Security Act, which 73 years later has evolved into, along with Medicare and Medicaid, about 40% of the annual federal expenditure.
The majority opinion acknowledged that the national economy had grown to such a degree that federal regulation and control was now warranted.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/8116/court11336242838664.jpg
Addressed to the nine. The Supreme Court in 1937, the year Franklin Roosevelt threatened to pack the court. When Justice Owen Roberts (rear, second from right), an ally of the court's conservatives, voted to uphold a minimum-wage law, it was called "the switch in time that saved nine." (Bettmann / Corbis)
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6923/courtjowenroberts.jpg
Justice Owen Roberts
Roosevelt's reorganization plan was thus unnecessary, and in July the Senate struck it down by a vote of 70 to 22. Soon after, Roosevelt had the opportunity to nominate his first Supreme Court justice, and by 1942 all but two of the justices were his appointees, ensuring FDR never again had to sweat any of his programs to grow the federal government would go down in flames at the hands of the Supreme Court.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9175/courtsupremecourt.jpg
The Supreme Court of the United States. Notice Moses, the Ten Commandments, and other biblical imagery on the frieze above the porch.
73 years ago, on February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt announces a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7148/court509pxfdrin1933.jpg
FDR, considered a populist saint by many, a socialist devil by others
Unquestionably, Roosevelt was trying to "pack" the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal. As you'll see, the Court got the message, relented in its opposition to FDR's programs, which grew the federal government's influence in the lives of ordinary Americans, and this shift has been called, "the switch in time that saved nine."
During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government.
Flushed with his landslide reelection in 1936, President Roosevelt issued a proposal in February 1937 to provide retirement at full pay for all members of the court over 70. If a justice refused to retire, an "assistant" with full voting rights was to be appointed, thus ensuring Roosevelt a liberal majority.
Most Republicans and even many Democrats in Congress opposed the so-called "court-packing" plan.
In April, however, before the bill came to a vote in Congress, two Supreme Court justices came over to the liberal side and by a narrow majority upheld as constitutional the National Labor Relations Act, which strengthened unions and the Social Security Act, which 73 years later has evolved into, along with Medicare and Medicaid, about 40% of the annual federal expenditure.
The majority opinion acknowledged that the national economy had grown to such a degree that federal regulation and control was now warranted.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/8116/court11336242838664.jpg
Addressed to the nine. The Supreme Court in 1937, the year Franklin Roosevelt threatened to pack the court. When Justice Owen Roberts (rear, second from right), an ally of the court's conservatives, voted to uphold a minimum-wage law, it was called "the switch in time that saved nine." (Bettmann / Corbis)
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6923/courtjowenroberts.jpg
Justice Owen Roberts
Roosevelt's reorganization plan was thus unnecessary, and in July the Senate struck it down by a vote of 70 to 22. Soon after, Roosevelt had the opportunity to nominate his first Supreme Court justice, and by 1942 all but two of the justices were his appointees, ensuring FDR never again had to sweat any of his programs to grow the federal government would go down in flames at the hands of the Supreme Court.