The Supreme Court

Pederson, William D. (editor) / Shaw, Stephen K. (author)

A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt ; 427-442

Blackwell Companions to American History

2011-03-25

16 pages

9781444395181 , 9781444330168

https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444395181.ch22

Article/Chapter (Book)

Electronic Resource

English

The US Supreme Court, popularly seen as “the nine old men” ‐ from the book, The Nine Old Men, on bestseller lists in 1936–7 , The Court, in the eyes of the Roosevelt administration ‐ justices unable or unwilling to concede to the existence of the twentieth century , The Supreme Court ‐ Franklin Roosevelt's ill‐fated ‘Court‐packing’ scheme of 1937, origins of plan remaining obscure and misstated , the plan by Roosevelt, to pack the Court ‐ few supporters, seen, then and now, as Roosevelt's greatest blunder while president , first term in office, President Roosevelt ‐ no single opportunity, of nominating anyone for a seat on the US Supreme Court , key aspect of FDR's motivation to change direction and/or membership of the Court ‐ “saw the New Deal in constitutional terms, not merely because the Supreme Court stood in his way” , the Court‐packing plan ‐ encountering a well‐deserved death in the United States Senate , Roosevelt's selection of Senator Black “was a symbolic and defiant act” ‐ afforded the President opportunity to express his contempt of the Court , Black's appointment, first of FDR's “transformative appointments” ‐ from Black in 1937 to the last Roosevelt appointee to the Court, federal judge Wiley Rutledge in 1943 , President, at the pinnacle of his power ‐ unprecedented reelection in 1936, effort at judicial reorganization, inglorious defeat at the hands of the Democratic US Senate