Court-Packing+Bill

On February 5, 1937, Franklin Roosevelt, overconfident after winning a landslide victory in the 1936, proposed the Court-Packing Bill. The bill would allow President Roosevelt to appoint additonal members to the Supreme Court for every sitting justice over the age of 70 but refused to retire. During the time, this would have resulted in the addition of six new Supreme Court Justices. Roosevelt proposed this act because in his previous term as president, the Supreme Court had rejected some of aspects of the New Deal which were intended to help economic recovery. Roosevelt tried to beat out his opponents by adding more justices to the Supreme Court because the constitution does not specify how many justices there may be. If Rooselevlt passed this bill, a majority of the Supreme Court would be on his side and his New Deal measures would face little opposition. Although Franklin Roosevelt won the election of 1936 in a landslide victory, many Democrats and most Republicans opposed the Court-Packing Bill. In July 1937, the bill was voted down by a vote of 70 to 22. This showed that President Roosevelt was not all powerful and he couldn't do everything that he wanted to do. This gave his opponents a realization that Franklin Roosevelt was an unstoppable opponent, but that he could be beaten.

Jacob Chang