The Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, frequently called the "court-packing plan", was a failed legislative initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to th
lossy page 1 Roosevelt Fireside Chat 1937.tif
The Hughes Court, 1932–1937. Front row: Justices Brandeis and Van Devanter, Chief Justice Hughes, and Justices McReynolds and Sutherland. Back row: Justices Roberts, Butler, Stone, and Cardozo.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His dissatisfaction over Supreme Court decisions holding New Deal programs unconstitutional prompted him to seek methods to change the way the court functioned.
Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Holmes's loss of half his pension pay due to New Deal legislation after his 1932 retirement is believed to have dissuaded Justices Van Devanter and Sutherland from departing the bench.
New Deal
Videos
The New Deal was a 1933–1938 series of economic, social, and political reforms in response to the Great Depression in the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He introduced the phrase
Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937
…initiative proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to add more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to obtain favorable rulings regarding New Deal legislation that the Court had ruled unconstitutional. The central provision of the bill would have granted the president power to appoint an additional…
Top left: Signing of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, 1933 Top right: President Franklin D. Roosevelt Bottom: Works Progress Administration public mural
1935 cartoon by Vaughn Shoemaker in which he parodied the New Deal as a card game with alphabetical agencies
Roosevelt's ebullient public personality, conveyed through his declaration that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and his "fireside chats" on the radio did a great deal to help restore the nation's confidence
Public Works Administration Project Bonneville Dam