How to save the world from the Supreme Court

Pack the Supreme Court with liberal cronies!

Time to flip.
(Image credit: Roger L. Wollenberg/Pool/Corbis)

In 1937, fresh off a landslide re-election victory, and frustrated at his New Deal policies being repeatedly overturned by the Supreme Court, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed to reform the court.

He proposed legislation allowing the president to appoint another justice to the highest court for every current member over 70 ½ years old, up to a maximum of six — effectively allowing him to load up the bench with hand-picked cronies. It's one of the most notorious moves of FDR's presidency, taught in schools as an ignominious abuse of power and one of his most shameful acts.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.