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20 Baylor L. Rev. 147 (1968)
Court Packing Prior to FDR

handle is hein.journals/baylr20 and id is 157 raw text is: BAYLOR
LAW REVIEW

VOLUME XX                SPRING, 1968               NUMBER 2
COURT PACKING PRIOR TO FDR
DR. J. R. SAYLOR*
The much publicized conflict in 1937 between President Franklin
D. Roosevelt and the Supreme Court of the United States over
the President's court-packing bill is not without precedent.
From Washington, who appointed no fewer than 12 justices,
through Hoover, every President with but two exceptions has
been confronted with one or more Supreme Court vacancies.1
Packing the Supreme Court is not new, for every time a Presi-
dent nominates a person to the Bench and the nomination is
confirmed by the Senate, the President indulges in court pack-
ing. That process has been going on continuously since the first
appointments to the Bench of Federalist judges by President
Washington. We have a government of laws interpreted and
applied by men, and it makes a great deal of difference who
these men are when a liberal or a conservative interpretation of
the Constitution is desired by a President. Many conservative
thinkers would have the people believe that Supreme Court ap-
*Professor of Government, East Texas State University. B.A., S. W. Mo.
State College; M.A., S.M.U.; Ph.D., University of Texas.
IIrving Dilliard, Mr. Roosevelt and the Supreme Court; the Observations
of a Citizen, Survey Graphic, February, 1937, Volume 26, p. 94. William
Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor made no appointments to the Bench,
but Harrison lived only a month after taking office and Taylor lived only
a year and four months after his inauguration. However, the Vice-Presidents
who filled out their terms, Tyler and Fillmore, each had an opportunity to
make nominations to the Supreme Court.-Loc. cit.

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