Thursday, February 4, 2010

Franklin Roosevelt appointed six additional justices of the Supreme Court. true or false?

False. He *attempted* to, but failed. In 1937, Roosevelt wanted a compliant Supreme Court. The Court had 6 members over 70 years old, who Roosevelt tried to convince to retire. When they refused, he came up with his plan to appoint 6 'co judges' to serve alongside the older judges, effectively neutralising the impact of the 6 who refused to retire.





Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson of Arkansas was tasked with getting Roosevelt's plan passed, but he died of a heart attack before achieving this, and the plan died with him. So no, Roosevelt did not appoint six ADDITIONAL justices.





He DID appoint 8 justices to the court during his term, however, which is second only to George Washington's 11 appointees. Of course, the court was actually formed during Washington's tenure, so it's natural that Washington had a lot of appointees.





Hope that helped!

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