{"id":2618893,"date":"2026-06-25T07:51:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-revive-fdr-court-packing-scheme-to-rig-the-supreme-court\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T07:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:54:45","slug":"democrats-revive-fdr-court-packing-scheme-to-rig-the-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-revive-fdr-court-packing-scheme-to-rig-the-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Trying To Repeat History With FDR Court-Packing Ruse"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-revive-fdr-court-packing-scheme-to-rig-the-supreme-court%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2618893&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the ongoing debate over the idea of expanding the Supreme Court, commonly referred to as court-packing, especially from Democratic leaders. It highlights recent instances where Democrats, such as Kamala Harris and Virginia state officials, have proposed or threatened to alter the court\u2019s composition, framing it as a way to &#8220;unpack&#8221; rather than &#8220;pack&#8221; the court. The piece emphasizes that court-packing is a historically controversial and misguided tactic, citing Franklin D.Roosevelt\u2019s failed attempt in 1937. FDR sought to expand the Court to pass his New Deal legislation but faced strong opposition from within Congress and the judiciary, including Chief Justice Charles Hughes. The article stresses that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to determine the number of justices, which has been fixed at nine as 1869.It criticizes modern efforts by Democrats to undermine the judiciary through inflammatory rhetoric and warns that such actions threaten the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court. The author advocates for a constitutional amendment to maintain nine justices,emphasizing the importance of judicial independence in safeguarding American freedoms. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, supports this approach to protect the judiciary\u2019s neutrality for future generations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>With the 2026 midterms approaching and the 2028 presidential election right behind them, Democrats are raising a discredited ruse to pack the Supreme Court with additional justices.<\/p>\n<p>Just last month, Democrats\u2019 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris floated the idea of Democrats packing the Supreme Court as part of a \u201cno <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-frontrunner-floats-packing-scotus-nuking-electoral-college-as-2028-platform\/\" title=\"Dem Frontrunner Floats ... SCOTUS As 2028 Platform\">bad idea brainstorm<\/a>.\u201d Meanwhile, Democrats in Virginia recently threatened to pack their state Supreme Court to circumvent a ruling they didn\u2019t like. Democrats have lit the match for this partisan firestorm and liberal elites are fanning the flames. This week The Hill published <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/judiciary\/supreme-court\/5934564-supreme-court-expansion-debate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an opinion article<\/a> claiming, \u201cExpanding the Supreme Court isn\u2019t court-packing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdding four seats under the next Democratic trifecta would actually be unpacking the court,\u201d the author argued.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats clearly need a history lesson: Court-packing was a bad idea in 1937, and it\u2019s a bad idea in 2026. Nine decades ago, the nation\u2019s 32nd president unleashed a sweeping expansion of the federal government with his New Deal program. Amid the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) sought to address high unemployment, a collapsed banking system, and an agricultural crisis in rural America with micromanagement of the U.S. economy. <\/p>\n<p>Congress passed more than a dozen major laws in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdrlibrary.org\/documents\/356632\/390886\/actionguide.pdf\/07370301-a5c1-4a08-aa63-e611f9d12c34\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FDR\u2019s first 100 days<\/a>. Many of those bumped into our constitutional system of checks and balances, which aims to prevent any one of the federal government\u2019s three branches from gaining too much power.<\/p>\n<p>During FDR\u2019s first term, the Supreme Court ruled that several New Deal laws usurped states\u2019 sovereignty, improperly delegated legislative power to the executive branch, violated constitutional authority by executive overreach, and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >unconstitutionally restricted individual liberties<\/a>. The bloc of conservative justices reining in the president\u2019s authority was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebsco.com\/research-starters\/history\/four-horsemen-vs-three-musketeers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">known as<\/a> the \u201cFour Horsemen.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>FDR cooked up a plan to secure his agenda by reshaping the court, packing it with judges of his choosing to outflank the Constitution. In cahoots with Attorney General Homer Cummings, they hatched a plan called the Judicial Procedures Reform Act of 1937. This would have allowed the president to appoint one additional justice for every sitting justice older than 70, enabling FDR to increase the number of Supreme Court Justices from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/when-franklin-roosevelt-clashed-with-the-supreme-court-and-lost-78497994\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nine to as many as 15, as well as add up to 44 judges to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-state-abortion-laws-put-supreme-court-under-the-microscope\/\" title=\"New State Abortion Laws Put ... Under the Microscope\">lower federal courts<\/a><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to determine the size of the federal judiciary. In 1789, when the Judiciary Act was first signed establishing the Supreme Court, Congress set the number at six. It increased the number as the country expanded, but that number has been set at nine since 1869.<\/p>\n<p>For a brief time, justices worked double duty and spent part of the year traveling a judicial circuit to hear cases; however, the practice of justices \u201criding circuit\u201d ended more than a century ago. Thus, the present-day argument to match the number of Supreme Court justices to the number of federal circuits is pure partisan poppycock, much like FDR\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/south-korean-president-yoon-likely-to-join-bizarre-trend\/\" title=\"South Korean president Yoon likely to join bizarre trend\">failed power grab<\/a> in 1937.<\/p>\n<p>FDR\u2019s duplicitous effort to pack the court not only breached the separation of powers, it also insulted the justices with the disingenuous assertion they couldn\u2019t handle the workload. FDR told Congress the justices were \u201cslow and infirm.\u201d That raised the ire of Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/timesmachine.nytimes.com\/timesmachine\/1937\/03\/23\/99517549.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&#038;ip=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a>, he bashed the court-packing plan, writing it would \u201cimpair\u201d the efficiency of the court, creating \u201cmore judges to hear, more judges to confer, more judges to discuss, more judges to be convinced and to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FDR used his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/fireside-chat-17\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cFireside Chat\u201d<\/a>  on March 9, 1937, to try and win the court of public opinion. He described the three branches of government as a three-horse team: \u201cTwo of the horses are pulling in unison today; the third is not.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>But the American people weren\u2019t buying it, and neither were their elected representatives, including a Democrat-controlled Congress. Iowa\u2019s own former President Hoover <a href=\"https:\/\/publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu\/academics\/research\/faculty-research\/new-deal\/hoover-speeches\/hh022037.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exposed<\/a> the outrageous effort to reduce \u201cthe sword of the people\u201d to \u201ca tool of the executive.\u201d In speeches across the country, he warned against the reckless precedent it would set: \u201c [B]y adding members of the Court, any succeeding President can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On June 14, 1937, the <a href=\"https:\/\/supremecourthistory.org\/films\/fdr-courtpacking-controversy-full-script\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a> issued a scathing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/app\/details\/SERIALSET-10076_00_00-356-0711-0000\/summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> on FDR\u2019s judicial reforms, calling it \u201cneedless, futile, and utterly dangerous.\u201d The committee urged the Senate to reject the plan \u201cso emphatically \u2026 that its parallel will never again be so presented to the free representatives of the free people of America.\u201d The Senate defeated FDR\u2019s court-packing plan a month later, preserving the Supreme Court\u2019s institutional integrity. <\/p>\n<p>FDR\u2019s power grab is a teachable moment for 21st-century d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu Democrats. Since they can\u2019t bulldoze their policies through the democratic process, they want to pack the court to ensure they never lose.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.republicanleader.senate.gov\/newsroom\/research\/democrats-are-disgracefully-eager-to-burn-down-the-institutions-of-our-constitutional-government#:~:text=Senate%2520Democrats%2520Have%2520A%2520Disgraceful,He%2520Wanted%2520In%2520A%2520Case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate Minority Leader<\/a> Chuck Schumer warned that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would \u201cpay the price\u201d for adhering to the Constitution, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has called the Supreme Court a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/democrats-judiciary.house.gov\/media-center\/press-releases\/ranking-member-raskin-s-statement-on-the-supreme-court-s-decision-in-louisiana-v-callais\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">disgrace<\/a>\u201d and a \u201ccorrupt MAGA majority.\u201d That rhetoric is reckless and harmful to our republic. These orchestrated attacks on the judiciary undermine public trust in the institution tasked with upholding the rule of law, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michael-sandels-vain-quest-for-the-common-good\/\" title=\"Michael Sandel\u2019s Vain Quest for the Common Good\">protecting individual rights<\/a> and our system of checks and balances.<\/p>\n<p>As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a lifelong Iowa farmer, I understand the futility of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. That\u2019s why I support a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/press\/rep\/releases\/grassley-cruz-introduce-constitutional-amendment-to-prevent-court-packing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">constitutional amendment<\/a> to keep nine Supreme Court justices on the bench at a time. As our nation celebrates the 250th birthday of America, we must safeguard the independence of the federal judiciary to protect our constitutional freedoms and way of life for generations to come.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats push court-packing amid 2026 midterms, risking backlash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4337,"featured_media":2618894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Interior_of_the_Supreme_Court_Building_during_a_session_June_7_1937.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[78348,3685,38095,32504],"class_list":["post-2618893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-court-packing-2","tag-democrats","tag-fdr","tag-political-strategy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Interior_of_the_Supreme_Court_Building_during_a_session_June_7_1937.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2618893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618897,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618893\/revisions\/2618897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2618894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2618893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2618893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2618893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}