PACKED: The Time FDR Tried to Rig the Supreme Court

The president you were taught to love once tried to rig the Supreme Court.

It's 1937. Franklin Roosevelt just won reelection in a landslide. But the Supreme Court keeps striking down his New Deal, program after program, and he is done losing.

So he proposes a plan. For every justice over seventy who refuses to retire, he gets to appoint a brand new one. That could grow the Court from nine seats to fifteen. Critics called it exactly what it was: court packing.

Here's what they don't teach you. His own Democratic Congress, the party that controlled both chambers, refused. They buried his bill. And as the fight raged, the Court suddenly began upholding New Deal laws anyway. They called it the switch in time that saved nine.

The plan collapsed in 1937, and it cost Roosevelt dearly. The Court stayed at nine seats, right where it sits today. The hero almost broke the thing he swore to protect.

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