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
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.
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state cour
The Royal Exchange in New York City, the first meeting place of the Supreme Court
The court lacked its own building until 1935. For most of that time, it had chambers in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, between 1791 and 1801, the court met in City Hall (pictured) in Philadelphia.
John Marshall, chief justice from 1801 to 1835
The U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., the home of the Supreme Court since 1935