Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Court Packing" Plan President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal" - a series of economic
programs designed to counter the devastating effects of the
Great Depression - faced many challenges in the courts. During
President Roosevelt's first term in office, the Supreme Court
struck down several provisions and statutes included in New Deal
programs, including the National Industrial Recovery Act, the
Railroad Retirement Act, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
|To counter the impact of the Court's decisions on the New Deal
reforms, President Roosevelt proposed legislation that would
have altered the makeup of the Supreme Court. The Judiciary
Reorganization Bill of 1937, which provided for broad reform of
the federal judicial system, allowed President Roosevelt to
appoint an additional member to the Supreme Court for every
sitting justice over the age of 70, which would have resulted in
a total of six new justices at the time the bill was introduced.
Despite the fact that the Cons