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Franklin D. Roosevelt and The Supreme Court

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal reformed and expanded the federal government to fight the effects of the Great Depression. But his program was challenged by a Supreme Court that considered the government's power in economic matters to be limited. Roosevelt responded with the so-called "Court Packing Plan," and while the proposal ultimately failed, Roosevelt's boldness, popularity and numerous later appointments resulted in a Court willing to uphold New Deal legislation.

Confronting an Economic Crisis

When Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, the United States was suffering the greatest economic crisis in its history: a quarter of the population was unemployed, banks were failing, and many homes and farms were being lost to foreclosure. Private businesses and local governments were unable to deal effectively with the Great Depression.

Roosevelt’s New Deal put the power of the federal government behind economic recovery. In a dynamic series of laws and executive actions, the government instituted work relief programs, bank and finance reform, farm prices support, mortgage relief, business and industrial regulation, and labor and wages reform. Against this backdrop of executive and congressional action sat a Supreme Court dominated by justices who viewed narrowly the federal government’s constitutional power to interfere with private economic activities.

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Challenged by a Reluctant Supreme Court

Initially, the Court lent its support to the New Deal, issuing in 1934 a series of decisions suggesting a generous conception of governmental power. These decisions, however, were based on narrow majorities that began to splinter by 1935 with the defection of Justice Owen J. Roberts to the conservative viewpoint. On “Black Monday”—May 27, 1935—the Court overturned two key pieces of New Deal legislation: the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Federal Farm Bankruptcy Act. In response, FDR condemned the Justices’ “horse and buggy definition of interstate commerce.”

The Court continued its assault in 1936, striking down the Agricultural Adjustment Act. In an important decision against the Tennessee Valley Authority, Chief Justice Hughes even encouraged dissenting shareholders to sue corporate officers who failed to oppose the New Deal.

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A Proposal to Reorganize the Court: the "Court Packing" Plan

In November 1936, Roosevelt won a sweeping reelection victory. Following this popular mandate, he boldly proposed to reorganize the federal judiciary by adding a new justice each time a justice reached age seventy and failed to retire. In this manner, the influence of older justices, including a number of conservatives, could be superseded by younger Roosevelt appointees supportive of the New Deal.

Although this judiciary reform proposal—which came to be known as the so-called “Court Packing Plan”—was widely opposed by the public, the press, and Congress, the Supreme Court quickly reversed course and began to uphold New Deal legislation. In 1937, the Court upheld a state minimum wage law similar to one it had struck down the previous year. In another landmark decision, the Court recognized Congress’s ability to regulate labor-management relationships affecting interstate commerce.

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“Switch in Time that Saved Nine”

Many factors may have contributed to the “switch in time that saved nine” by Justice Roberts and others, including the popular will expressed in Roosevelt’s 1936 landslide reelection and his threat to reorganize the Court. Whatever the cause, the constitutional revolution of 1937 resulted in a Supreme Court that consistently embraced an expansive view of the federal government’s role in regulating and influencing private economic activities.

Franklin Roosevelt appointed more justices than any president since Washington. Among his eight notable appointments were loyal New Dealers Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy and Robert H. Jackson. In 1941, Roosevelt elevated Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, a progressive Republican, to the chief justiceship and appointed Senator James F. Byrnes to the Court. Roosevelt’s final Court appointment, in 1943, was Justice Wiley B. Rutledge.

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