Show SUPREME COURT CHANGED 7 TIMES i i i tut but president Roosevel ts pro proposed P ased increase to fifteen justices would far exceed any such alteration in history q in X n 1 IR N to S F M K W Q 0 who will be the new members to join this group should the presidents plan carry through left to right front row justices brandeis eighty van deventer seventy eight hughes seventy four sev enty five and sutherland seventy four back row roberts sixty one butler seventy stone sixty four and cardozo sixty six mentioned as possible additions to fin fill in the question marks have been new dealers wagner landis frankfurter and corcoran by WILLIAM C UTLEY HOULD president roosevelt succeed in his proposal to increase S SHOULD the number of justices on the bench of the united states supreme court such changes would by no means be without precedent except in their scope the number of just justices ices has been changed by act of congress no less than seven times during the years of its existence but never by more than three justices there have been numerous instances of clashes between a president and the supreme court originally the court was composed of six members but during the time of the clash between adams and jefferson in 1801 the number was reduced to six under pressure of heavily loaded dockets as the young youn 9 country was growing the number was increased to seven in 1807 and 30 years later was increased again to nine further expansion resulted in the addition of still another justice and in 1863 the supreme court reached its peak of ten justices in 1866 the number was reduced again to seven but in 1869 it went back to nine again president grant gra nt was at that time popularly accused of having packed the court to uphold legislation in which he was interested but the majority of historians absolve him from any such intention now comes president roosevelt with his proposal to appoint to each federal court including the S supreme u court a new judge for each present one who is over the retirement age of seventy but has not retired apparently it is beyond the power of congress to require justices to retire at seventy for the constitution provides that they shall serve during good behavior appointments permanent there are now nine supreme court justices of whom six are past the retirement age it follows then that at the present time the membership on the supreme court bench could not be increased to more than 15 under the presidents proposal new judgeships judge ships on that and all other federal court benches would be permanent to the observer in washington it seems immediately apparent that one of the presidents purposes in securing the proposed legislation is to nullify possible adverse rulings on new deal acts by older justices who have been in the habit of voting to declare new deal legislation unconstitutional chief justice charles evans hughes seventy five has voted sometimes to uphold sometimes to nullify new deal acts he once ran as the republican candidate for the presidency louis dembitz brandeis eighty has voted to sustain all new deal legislation except in the case of the in which the vote was unanimously against but justices willis van deventer sev enty eight james clarke seventy five george sutherland seventy five and pierce butler seventy one have voted invariably against the new deal edicts free of politics the new deal has suffered defeat in 9 out of 11 major decisions of 0 the court in at least four cases a change of four votes could have reversed the decision the present chief justice mr Hugi hughes ies once said of the court at all times it has had the most mosi severe critics tradition has it that all decisions are rendered without consideration of political partisanship and indeed there are more than a few incidents to uphold the tradition justices appointed by president jefferson helped to develop the nationalistic interpretation of the constitution which he deplored justices appointed by president jackson differed with his opinion and wishes in important interpretation pre tation and his own appointees held president Lincol ns legal tender policy unconstitutional nothing is more striking in the history of the court wrote warren than the manner in which the hopes of those who expected a judge to follow the political views of the president who appointed him have been disappointed changes in membership of the court began early in the election of 1800 the federalists suffered an overwhelming defeat the lame duck congress between the time of jeffersons election and his inauguration ura tion to prevent the new president from filling a vacancy on the bench with one of his own appointees reduced the number of justices to five it also relieved supreme court justices from circuit court duties established six new circuits with sixteen new judges and attaches and filled all the vacancies with staunch federalists adams appointments were confirmed by the senate the day before jeffersons inauguration the next congress controlled by jefferson abolished two terms of court repealed the judiciary act of the adams congress abolished the new circuits and restored the supreme court to its original membership of six ironically enough it was the federalist appointed supreme court which in 1803 upheld the constitutionality of jeffersons repeal act this was in the case of marbury vs madison the former had been appointed to a judgeship of the peace in the district of columbia by president adams but his commission had not been delivered to him at the time of jeffersons inauguration augu ration he sought a writ of mandamus to compel the secretary of state to deliver his commission me court ruled that the mandamus was the proper procedure but that congress in delegating to the supreme court the power to issue such a writ by the judiciary act of 1789 had acted in excess of the powers granted to it under the constitution ution this was the first instance in which the court had acted upon the constitutionality of an act of congress and established its right to do so the first time that any complete act of congress was actually declared unconstitutional was in the dred scott case 50 years later the court held only four federal statutes unconstitutional during the first 80 years of its existence by 1825 however it had under marshall strengthened the federal structure considerably consi durably der ably it had invalidated 10 laws made by the states as unconstitutional during andrew jacksons tenure of office the state of georgia passed a law of division of some land in the state to which the cherokee indians held title the supreme c ourt court decided this was outside its jurisdiction the state then passed a law requiring all whites in the cherokee territory to take an oath of allegiance to the state when two missionaries sion aries refused they were imprisoned the supreme court issued a writ of error and declared that the statute was unconstitutional because becaas e the federal government alone had jurisdiction over the cherokees and their territory the country was growing and crowded court dockets made it advisable vi sable on the last day of the jackson administration to increase the number of justices to nine there were then eight one having been added in 1807 As the west began to expand another justice was added in 1863 during the reconstruction period in 1868 1866 president johnson wa was s on trial on impeachment impeach m ent charges his leniency toward the south having angered party leaders congress passed a statute returning the number of justices to seven johnson vetoed it but the reduction was carried over his veto A bill requiring a two thirds vote of the court to declare a law unconstitutional failed to pass in in congress about that time it had been drawn in the fear that the court would declare the reconstruction st laws invalid grant appoints two president lincoln clashed with chief justice taney when soon after fort sumter was attacked john merryman Merry mau a confederate lieutenant was arrested on charges of aiding the enemy taney gave him a habeas corpus to get released from fort mchenry but the officer in charge acting under the presidents instructions refused to obey the writ taney ordered the arrest of the officer but the civilian who bore the writ was refused admission to the fort taney wrote an opinion declaring that a writ of habeas corpus could not be suspended the number of justices was increased from seven to nine shortly after ulysses S grant became president the court court by a vote of 4 to 3 held unconstitutional the legal tender act which was passed during the civil war there were two vacancies on the bench at that time the day the opinion was do da livered by chief justice chase president grant nominated two new ne me ordered members bers and soon after the court cour ordered that the greenbacks green backs cass cas be re argued there was a great storm of indignation dig nation when the new justices joined with the three who had voted to uphold the act and the legal tender act was declared constitutional a western newspaper union |