FDR Tries to Pack the Court

HISTORY This Week

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4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

June 1, 1936. The Supreme Court hands down its last decision of the term. The justices have dealt blow after blow to President Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation, and today is no different: they rule against FDR again. It’s the last straw. Roosevelt is going to do something drastic – try to reshape the Supreme Court itself. Will FDR’s bold move get him what he wants? And how will the Court try to stop him?

Special thanks to our guests: Laura Kalman, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of FDR’s Gambit: The Court Packing Fight and the Rise of Legal Liberalism; and Michael Nelson, political science professor at Rhodes College and author of Vaulting Ambition: FDR's Campaign to Pack the Supreme Court. Thanks also to Clare Cushman, resident historian at the Supreme Court Historical Society.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The History Channel, original podcast.
0:04.4	History this week, June 1, 1936.
0:10.1	I'm Sally Helm.
0:13.0	The United States Supreme Court is about to announce its last
0:17.0	decision of the term.
0:19.0	And President Roosevelt is watching closely, probably gritting
0:23.4	his teeth. Because if recent decisions are any guide, he's not
0:28.1	about to get good news.
0:29.8	Then good news for Roosevelt would be simple.
0:33.0	He just wants the court to stop messing with his landmark
0:37.2	legislation, a series of laws that he's calling the new deal.
0:43.6	These are not modest reforms.
0:46.6	Three years ago, soon after Roosevelt entered the White House, he
0:50.0	began proposing to expand the size and scope of the federal
0:54.1	government. He introduced laws to protect workers, laws to
0:58.0	stabilize the banking industry and make it easier for people to
1:01.3	get loans. And biggest of all, the Social Security Act to make
1:05.8	sure people had enough money to retire with dignity.
1:09.9	Congress has passed these laws, but the Supreme Court has
1:14.5	repeatedly struck them down.
1:17.8	And today's decision is another crucial test for the new deal.
1:23.4	It's a case about a laundromat in Brooklyn, where the owner
	...

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