The Texans who contacted their representative to oppose President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court-packing plan were among many who saw the proposal as a threat to the constitutional separation of powers. Many members of Congress, including some from the president’s own party, opposed the bill, and it went down to defeat.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
Telegram from El Paso, Texas, Residents to Representative Robert E. Thomason of Texas, February 9, 1937
Congress Opposes Court Packing Plan
President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office during the Great Depression and instituted sweeping economic regulations and reforms to establish “a New Deal for Americans.” With a Democratic majority in Congress, he pushed through New Deal legislation, but the Supreme Court’s conservative majority declared many key statutes unconstitutional. In 1937 Roosevelt proposed a Judicial Procedures Reform Bill that would have allowed him to expand the Supreme Court and appoint new justices sympathetic to his agenda. Congress strongly opposed the presidents’ “court packing” plan.
Somebody has got to know the road and how to guide or we may pile up in the ditch. There has got to be somebody around who appreciates that there are times when the foot should be shifted from the accelerator to the brakes.
Representative Hatton W. Sumners of Texas, Letter to Marvin McIntyre, January 12, 1937
The Texans who contacted their representative to oppose President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court-packing plan were among many who saw the proposal as a threat to the constitutional separation of powers. Many members of Congress, including some from the president’s own party, opposed the bill, and it went down to defeat.
Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives and Records Administration
