New Deal - Court-packing Plan and Jurisprudential Shift

Court-packing Plan and Jurisprudential Shift

When Roosevelt took office a majority of the nine judges of the Supreme Court were appointed by Republican Party Presidents. Four especially conservative judges (nicknamed the Four Horsemen) often managed to convince the fifth judge Owen Roberts to void down progressive legislation. Roosevelt increasingly saw the issue of the Supreme Court as one of unelected officials stifling the work of a democratically elected government. Early in the year 1936, he asked Congress to pass the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937. That proposal would have given the president the power to appoint a new justice whenever an existing judge reached the age of 70 and failed to retire within six months. In that way Roosevelt hoped to preserve the New Deal legislation. But he had stirred up a hornet`s nest since many congressmen feared he might start to retire them at 70 next. Many congressmen considered the proposal unconstitutional. In the end the proposal failed.

In one sense, however, it succeeded: Justice Owen Roberts switched positions and began voting to uphold New Deal measures, effectively creating a liberal majority in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish and National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, thus departing from the Lochner v. New York era and giving the government more power in questions of economic policies. Journalists called this change "the switch in time that saved nine". Recent scholars have noted that since the vote in Parrish took place several months before the court-packing plan was announced, other factors, like evolving jurisprudence, must have contributed to the Court's swing. The opinions handed down in the spring of 1937, favorable to the government, also contributed to the downfall of the plan. In any case, the "court packing plan", as it was known, did lasting political damage to Roosevelt.

With the retirement of Justice Willis Van Devanter, the Court's composition began to move solidly in support of Roosevelt's legislative agenda. In the end Roosevelt had lost the battle for the Judiciary Reorganization Bill but won the war for control of the Supreme Court in a constitutional way. Since he managed to serve in office for more than twelve years he got the chance to appoint eight of the nine Justices of the Court. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist noted that in this way the Constitution provides for ultimate responsibility of the Court to the political branches of government.