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The Court Packing Crisis of 1937

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

William E. Leuchtenburg
William E. Leuchtenburg*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina
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Extract

In the nearly two-hundred-year history of the American republic, no episode resulted in so sharp a confrontation between and among the three branches of the national government as the proposal Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled on February 5, 1937, to reorganize the federal judiciary. Promptly dubbed the "Court-packing plan," FDR's recommendations constituted an effort by the chief executive to alter the outlook of the Supreme Court to such an extent that it would henceforth validate virtually all acts of Congress, especially socio-economic measures. Instead of forging an alliance of the executive and legislative branches against the judiciary, however, the ensuing struggle pitted the executive against a powerful segment of the legislative with the judicial branch playing a not inconsequential role in how the battle came out. The repercussions of that momentous combat continue to reverberate in our own day.

Type
Research Article
Information
News for Teachers of Political Science , Volume 45 , Spring 1985 , pp. 12 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1985

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Footnotes

This essay by William E. Leuchtenburg and the essays that follow by I. M. Destler and Joel Grossman are based upon college faculty seminars they conducted, in summer 1984, for Project ‘87. The seminars are supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis, Inc.

References

Notes

1. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973).

2. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958).

3. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960).

4. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1956).

5. (New York: Harper and Row, 1963).

6. 247 U.S. 251 (1918).

7. 259 U.S. 20(1922).

8. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1983).

9. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970).

10. (New York: Harper and Row, 1972).

11. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968).

12. (New York: Viking, 1956).

13. Home Bldg. and Loan Association v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934).

14. Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502 (1934).

15. Ibid at 536

16. Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan, 293 U.S. 388 (1935).

17. Norman v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., 294 U.S. 240 (1935) and related cases.

18. Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad Co., 295 U.S. 330 (1935).

19. Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford, 295 U.S. 555 (1935).

20. Humphrey's Executor v. United States 295 U.S. 602 (1935).

21. Schechterv. United States 295 U.S. 495 (1935).

22. United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936).

23. Carter v. Carter Coal Company, 298 U.S. 238 (1936).

24. Ashton v. Cameron County Water District, 298 U.S. 513 (1936).

25. Jones v. SEC, 298 U.S. 1 (1936).

26. Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288 (1936).

27. Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo, 298 U.S. 587 (1936).

28. Stone, Mason, p. 425.

29. Pusey, Merlo J., Charles Evans Hughes, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hendel, Samuel, Charles Evans Hughes and the Supreme Court (New York: King's Crown Press, 1951)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paschal, Joel Francis, Mr. Justice Sutherland: A Man Against the State (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951)Google Scholar.

30. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982).

31. “The Commerce Clause and the National Economy, 1933-1946,” Harvard Law Review, 59 (May, July 1946).

32. Hyman, Harold M. and Levy, Leonard W., eds.. Freedom and Reform; Essays in Honor of Henry Steele Commager (New York; Harper & Row, 1967)Google Scholar; (New York: Knopf, 1941).

33. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (13 vols., 1938-50), 4: 205; 5:191-92.

34. Supreme Court Review (1966).

35. Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo, 298 U.S. at 611 (1936).

36. West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937).

37. NLRB v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, 301 U.S. 1 (1937) and related cases; Steward Machine Company v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548 (1937); Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619(1937).

38. “Mr. Justice Roberts,” 104 University of Pennsylvania Law Review﹛ 1955).

39. “The Big Switch: Justice Roberts and the Minimum Wage Cases,” Labor History, 10 (Winter 1969).

40. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1938).

41. (New York: Macmillan, 1967).

42. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969).

43. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1964).

44. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967).

45. (New York: Ronald Press, 1957).

46. See Leuchtenburg, “A Klansman Joins the Court: The Appointment of Hugo L. Black,“ University of Chicago Law Review, 41 (Fall 1973).“