ABSTRACT
The Supreme Court of the United States, dominated in the 1935–1936 term by an active conservative bloc, declared several major pieces of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation unconstitutional. The ill-thought-out scheme, quickly dubbed Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Court-packing plan when introduced, became the first major political blunder of his four-term presidency. Both FDR and Homer S. Cummings, his first attorney general, agreed that a constitutional amendment to address composition of the Supreme Court would take too long. FDR stunned Congress on February 5, 1937, with introduction of the Court-packing scheme. The Senate knew that Robinson had been tapped to be FDR's first Supreme Court nominee under the new plan. A great irony of FDR's Court-packing episode to assure a younger judiciary had been made by former US Attorney General James C. McReynolds, one of the sitting justices targeted by FDR for removal.
