Roosevelt attempts ‘pack’ Supreme Court

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Domains

Dates

Date of occurrence 1937-02-02

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

President Roosevelt asked for 6 additional Supreme Court justices. However, his ‘packing plan’ was defeated. In 1937, Roosevelt believed that the last remaining barrier to his New Deal was the Supreme Court. Indeed, the Court, comprised of pre-Roosevelt appointees, was not entirely supportive of Roosevelt’s New Deal reform measures. To prevent further backsliding, Roosevelt proposed to reorganize the Supreme Court; his plan would have enabled him to add a new justice for every sitting justice over 70 years of age. The reorganization bill was roundly criticized as a blatant violation of the separation of powers and the rule of law. Roosevelt’s bill ultimately proved unsuccessful in Congress. It was voted down. But, in a larger sense, the measure proved successful; in the aftermath…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

137 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Roosevelt attempts ‘pack’ Supreme Court". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5611, accessed 19 April 2024.]

Save this article