New Deal Dbq

President Franklin Roosevelt strived throughout his time in office to construct multiple reforms, such as the New Deal, that would completely alter the role of the federal government. At the beginning of his administration, President Roosevelt faced heavy opposition from the current justices of the Supreme court. Many of the Supreme Court Justices were older and held conservative views that deterred them from vote for most of President Roosevelt’s legislature. With-in his first couple years, the Supreme Court had rejected numerous piece of legislature like the National Recovery Administration, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and many key pieces of Roosevelt’s historic New Deal. (History.com) The justices’ traditional views drove them to deem

the majority of Roosevelt’s idea unconstitutional. He strongly believed that “ no program of reform could survive conservative justices” and that the courts were “overworked” and needed more “manpower”. (Brinkley 603) Therefore, he needed a way to bring in new, more liberal justices to the Supreme Court. Since most of the justices refused to retire, President Roosevelt decided to propose what would later be labeled the “Court Packing Plan” which would allow him to add up to six additional justices to the Supreme Court.

This plan would also appoint an “assistant” with full voting rights to any justice who was over the age of 70 and refused to retire. (History.com) Although President Roosevelt’s Court Packing Plan was eventually rejeected, it ultimately fulfilled its purpose by forcing the Supreme Court to alter its harsh conservative voting. Three of the nine justices had already typically voted liberally. After the threat of the Court Packing Bill two more justices, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Associate Justice Owen J. Robert, began to compromise and vote for progressively. They upheld the state minimum wage law in the case of the West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, as well as the Wagner Act, and Social Security Act. This new change in the courts attitude caused the Court Packing bill to be rendered unnecessary. President Roosevelt’s Court Packing Plan had a lasting effect on the Supreme Court as well. During its previous years before President Roosevelt threatened them with his Court Packing Plan, the conservative justices were reluctant to change and worked hard to maintain very traditional

views. This type of perspective made it very difficult to other branches of legislature to pass new law and regulations. Since Roosevelt’s plan gave them little choice but to alter their mindset, it truly jump started the justices into becoming more liberal in the future. This allowed not only Roosevelt. But future Presidents to be able to pass many more piece of legislature which would help shape our county today.