Supreme Court-Packing

FDR, Congress and the Plan to Pack the Supreme Court (Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

Attached is an article by James A. Farley (1888 – 1976), who in 1933 was appointed by F.D.R. to serve as both the Postmaster General as well as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. During the Thirties, Farley was also FDR’s go-to-guy in all matters involving politics on Capitol Hill, and he wrote the attached article two years after Roosevelt’s death in order to explain how the Court-packing scheme was received in Congress and how his relationship with FDR soon soured.

Boss, I asked him, why didn’t you advise the senators in advance that you were sending them the Court bill?
Jim, I just couldn’t, he answered earnestly. I didn’t want to have it get to the press prematurely…

FDR, Congress and the Plan to Pack the Supreme Court (Collier’s Magazine, 1947) Read More »

FDR’s ”Pack The Court” Proposal (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Attached is a break-down of President Roosevelt’s proposed legislation to rid the Supreme Court of six ornery justices by imposing a mandatory retirement age for the whole of the Federal Government. Failing that, FDR’s legislation would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70, in order to assure passage of all New Deal legislation.

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Justice George Sutherland (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Justice George Sutherland (1862 – 1942) was consistently on the reactionary side in votes against New Deal legislation. It was he who wrote the decisions invalidating the Guffey coal-control act and the powers of the SEC to interrogate witnesses. His NRA and the Municipal Bankruptcy Act, railroad pensions and hot oil legislation. He voted in favor of the TVA and old-age pensions.

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Justice Louis D. Brandeis (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Part of the personal tragedy inherent in President Roosevelt’s suggestion to rid the Supreme Court of men over 70, part of the uncertainty with which liberals greet his plan, must arise from consideration of Louis Demblitz Brandeis. At 80, Brandeis is the oldest of the nine justices… Liberals cherish him, conservatives respect him and the [FDR] administration is grateful to him.

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FDR on His Efforts to Pack the Court (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

In writing the attached article for Collier’s, FDR made his feelings clear that he felt a deep sense of urgency to alleviate the collective pain spreading across the nation as a result of the Great Depression. Believing that it was the Supreme Court that was prolonging the agony of the American unemployed, FDR quickly began to examine all his options as to how he could best secure a majority on the court:

Here was one man, not elected by the people, who by a nod of the head could apparently ify or uphold the will of the overwhelming majority of a nation of 130,000,000.

Time would not allow us to wait for vacancies. Things were happening.

Click here to read about American
communists and their Soviet overlords.

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Dumping Justices (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

The attached editorial was intended to serve as PATHFINDER MAGAZINE‘s introduction to six pen-portraits that follow on the next webpage. In order to better serve their readers the editors provided profiles of the oldest Supreme Court justices who FDR wished to remove.

[Justices] McReynolds, Sutherland, Van Devanter, and Butler are generally conceded to be the court’s consistently conservative bloc. In some cases, this bloc is viewed as not only conservative but also reactionary.


Click here to read the profiles of the six justices…

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FDR vs. the Men in Black (Collier’s Magazine, 1941)

An article written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) in which he rants on about all the triumphs of his first two terms, repeating in several places how much better his administration was than the one that preceded him, how popular he was with the voters and emphasizing throughout that the Federal Government had tremendous potential as a force for good during the Great Depression, but it’s efforts were blocked at every turn:

For a dead hand was being laid upon this whole program of progress – to stay it all.
It was the hand of the Supreme Court of the United States…former Supreme Court Justices McReynolds, Van Devanter, and Butler, whose judgments were all consistently against New Deal measures.

Click here to see an anti-New Deal cartoon.

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Justice Willis Van Devanter (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

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Justice Willis Van Devanter (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »

Justice Pierce Butler (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

More articles about FDR Supreme Court scheme can be read here…… KEY WORDS: Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler 1937,Justice Pierce Butler 1937 Supreme Court Controversy,Justice Pierce Butler and FDR,Justice Pierce Butler and FDR court-Packing scheme,Justice Pierce Butler,Justice Pierce Butler targeted by FDR 1937,Justice Pierce Butler and the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937

Justice Pierce Butler (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »