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Thursday, February 6, 2020

Roosevelt and the Court Packing Scandal

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In February of 1937, Roosevelt proposed a bill that would appoint six new Supreme Court justices; one for each justice that was seventy or older that had yet to retire. Most saw this as Roosevelt trying tamper with the Supreme Court that had been vetoing his New Deal economic reforms. However, after Judge Clock underwent an investigation of the scandal, he came to the conclusion that Roosevelt's main goal was to get the older justices to retire, not to necessarily add additional seats for his personal gain. The Constitution laid how justices get put on the bench but never discussed how to remove them, and since their retirement salary was cut in half in 1932, most decided to devote their lives to the job and stay on as long as they possibly could. When the founding fathers were writing the Constitution, the whole "justice for life" thing was not an issue, but since life expectancy has gone up, justices stay a part of the Supreme Court until they are ready to depart.

In 1935, Roosevelt attempted to pass a bill that would restore the full retirement salaries but failed due to the budgetary concerns that arose during the Great Depression. This led to said court-packing scandal. However, Roosevelt's plan was modeled his plan after the 1860s Republican Congress' that also appointed new judges for each that would not retire and take their pension.

Personally, I do not see anything wrong with limiting the time justices can occupy a seat on the Supreme Court. The Constitution determined how long a president or congress member is in office, so why is it taboo to do the same thing for the Supreme court?

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/24/the-lost-history-of-fdrs-court-packing-scandal-225201
https://www.history.com/news/franklin-roosevelt-tried-packing-supreme-court

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