Jackson Lennock
Well-known member
From this Paper:
11 or 12 Justices also had the advantageous rationale that it was to keep consistent with the old tradition of having a Justice per circuit. There were 11 Circuits at the time, and so you could argue the necessity of having a justice-per-circuit (11) or a justice-per-circuit-plus-Chief-Justice (12). Any issues with an even-numbered Court could be resolved by a tie-goes-to-the-Chief rule.
The Court was split between the Four Horsemen (Conservative), Three Musketeers (Liberal), and swing votes Roberts and Hughes. FDR didn't trust Hughes and Roberts to keep voting liberal if the threat of Court Packing went away. And FDR promised the first open seat to Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson, who FDR thought might break Conservative on the bench. Accordingly, FDR wanted 6 new seats - 5 additional guaranteed liberals to support the three musketeers (8 total) against a potential coalition of the the Horsemen, Robinson, and the Swing votes (7 total).
But FDR could have taken out two of the horsemen just by raising their pensions. Sutherland and Van Devanter were in ill health, and it was a fear of poverty that kept them from retiring. When their pensions were upped, they retired OTL. That'd mean at most 5 Conservative and Moderate votes against a bloc of 6 liberals (if 11) or 7 liberals (if 12).
James McReynolds (Conservative)
Louis Brandeis (Liberal)
Pierce Butler (Conservative)
Harlan F Stone (Liberal)
Owen Roberts (Center)
Benjamin Cardozo (Liberal)
Joseph T Robinson (Center)
Hugo Black (Liberal)
Stanley Reed (Liberal)
William O Douglas (Liberal)
Felix Frankfurter (Liberal)
Chief Justice: Harlan F Stone (Liberal)
Owen Roberts (Center)
Joseph T Robinson (Center)
Hugo Black (Liberal)
Stanley Reed (Liberal)
William O Douglas (Liberal)
Felix Frankfurter (Liberal)
Frank Murphy (Liberal)
Robert Jackson (Liberal)
James Byrnes (Liberal / Center)
Wiley Rutledge (Liberal)
Sherman Minton (Liberal)
What makes a Justice a liberal in this period is tricky though. Byrnes, Jackson, Frankfurter, and Minton could quickly be considered center or conservative as things move away from judicial restraint towards economic regulation and towards the court as a protector of civil liberties.
Democratic Senator Key Pittman wrote to Attorney General Homer Cummings proposing an eleven-member Court just three days after the President surprised the congressional leadership with his own proposal. On February 20 a delegation of congressional leaders headed by Vice-President John Nance Garner, Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Fountain Ashurst urged the President to agree to a compromise providing for the addition of two or three additional justices. Roosevelt responded by “laugh[ing] in their faces.
11 or 12 Justices also had the advantageous rationale that it was to keep consistent with the old tradition of having a Justice per circuit. There were 11 Circuits at the time, and so you could argue the necessity of having a justice-per-circuit (11) or a justice-per-circuit-plus-Chief-Justice (12). Any issues with an even-numbered Court could be resolved by a tie-goes-to-the-Chief rule.
The Court was split between the Four Horsemen (Conservative), Three Musketeers (Liberal), and swing votes Roberts and Hughes. FDR didn't trust Hughes and Roberts to keep voting liberal if the threat of Court Packing went away. And FDR promised the first open seat to Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson, who FDR thought might break Conservative on the bench. Accordingly, FDR wanted 6 new seats - 5 additional guaranteed liberals to support the three musketeers (8 total) against a potential coalition of the the Horsemen, Robinson, and the Swing votes (7 total).
But FDR could have taken out two of the horsemen just by raising their pensions. Sutherland and Van Devanter were in ill health, and it was a fear of poverty that kept them from retiring. When their pensions were upped, they retired OTL. That'd mean at most 5 Conservative and Moderate votes against a bloc of 6 liberals (if 11) or 7 liberals (if 12).
Supreme Court in 1938
Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (Center)James McReynolds (Conservative)
Louis Brandeis (Liberal)
Pierce Butler (Conservative)
Harlan F Stone (Liberal)
Owen Roberts (Center)
Benjamin Cardozo (Liberal)
Joseph T Robinson (Center)
Hugo Black (Liberal)
Stanley Reed (Liberal)
William O Douglas (Liberal)
Felix Frankfurter (Liberal)
Supreme Court in 1941
Chief Justice: Harlan F Stone (Liberal)
Owen Roberts (Center)
Joseph T Robinson (Center)
Hugo Black (Liberal)
Stanley Reed (Liberal)
William O Douglas (Liberal)
Felix Frankfurter (Liberal)
Frank Murphy (Liberal)
Robert Jackson (Liberal)
James Byrnes (Liberal / Center)
Wiley Rutledge (Liberal)
Sherman Minton (Liberal)
What makes a Justice a liberal in this period is tricky though. Byrnes, Jackson, Frankfurter, and Minton could quickly be considered center or conservative as things move away from judicial restraint towards economic regulation and towards the court as a protector of civil liberties.