First Liberty | Supreme Court Coup
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    FDR ATTEMPTS TO EXPAND THE NUMBER OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
			Timelines: History

    February 5, 1937

    Roosevelt disliked that the Supreme Court opposed some of the provisions of his progressive New Deal and tried to pack the court with more favorable justices. But the idea didn’t take. At the time, even his supporters saw it as an overt attempt to advance his own political agenda. The Senate Judiciary Committee called the proposal an “invasion of judicial power such as has never before been attempted in this country.” The Committee declared, “it is essential to the continuance of our constitutional democracy that the judiciary be completely independent of both the executive and legislative branches of the government.”