FDR and the Supreme Court

After Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s, first term he was brought into the second term with the greatest popular vote in history at the time. The Democratic leader had great respect from most of the Americans. He had helped them through the worst depression the country has ever seen. His first one hundred days in the White House, during his first term, he had done many things to help the country. He had created organizations, most of which are still here today, which include the National Recovery Administration, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Rural Electrification Administration, the National Youth Administration, and the Works Progress Administration. All of these helped the United States out of the depression and still help people today. He also set up Social Security which gave the United States senior citizens a two hundred dollar pension if the were not working.

The only problem with all of the things Franklin Delano Roosevelt was doing was the Supreme Court. They wanted to ban the projects he was doing because they said they were unconstitutional. The “four horsemen”, along with another judge that joined later, stated the NRA and the AAA were unconstitutional. This outraged farmers. Someone even found 6 life-sized dummies representing the justices found hanged on the side of the road. The court denied a state law in New York that wanted a minimum wage for women and children in June 1936.

FDR took action; on February 5, 1937 he asked any justice over the age of 70 should retire. This whole matter triggered debates and other issues. FDR tried to pass a bill that would last 168 days. This bill tried to raise the number of justices from 9 to 15. “This bill obviously is not playing the game,” said Professor Erwin Griswold. “There are at least two ways of getting rid of judges. One is to take them out and shoot them, as they are reported to do in at least one other country. The other way is more genteel, but no less effective. They are kept on the public payroll but their votes are canceled.” On March 29 the Supreme Court passed a law that allowed minimum wage in the state of Washington. Owen Roberts seemed to change his mind in what he was doing; he started casting the kind of votes that FDR wanted. FDR said that he had lost the battle, but won the war. The size of the court was not enlarged but in the end FDR finally got what he wanted.