It was a sweet end to a bitter fight, in July of 1937. After five years of meteoric rising in popularity, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had finally been dealt a slap to the face. At issue was the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, the polite term for court-packing. Stymied for years by the Supreme Court’s opposition to his brilliant new agencies and programs, Roosevelt had devised a way around those pesky checks and balances. For every sitting justice over the age of 70, the bill granted the President power to appoint another justice. It would have allowed him to appoint an additional six judges to the court – six of his own political persuasion, in addition to the minority of liberals already on the bench.

Justice Owen Roberts turned coat later that spring, upholding a minimum wage law and thus reversing the majority/minority ratio. Contemporaries called it ‘the switch in time that saved nine’, but that’s granting too much credit to Roosevelt. Even after Roberts crossed sides, the President had no intention of revoking his bill. But for once, Roosevelt had overstepped the bounds of his popularity.

Criticism of Roosevelt’s power grab in learned circles was sharp and severe. But it was nothing compared to the widespread public reaction, as the months wore on and Roosevelt’s scheme became more prominently known. However much he may have been their hero of the New Deal, however poor and desperate they may have been, the American people still dearly loved their Constitution and identified the Judicial branch as its protector. Angry letters poured in. Blithely confident that he could sway his people, Roosevelt hosted another of his fireside chats and explained that the nation “must take action to save the Constitution from the Court, and the Court from itself.” If anything, this only made America angrier.

Congressional debates turned as hot as the growing summer heat. Roosevelt had burned himself in reaching for the sun; even members of his own party were appalled by the President’s reckless powermongering. He alienated support for his New Deal agenda, dismayed many of the voting public who first put him in office, and unwittingly helped build support for the Conservative Coalition that hated him so. It is probably this single act, more than any other, that exposed Roosevelt’s true fascist appetite. And on July 22, the Senate voted 70-20 to send the bill back to committee, effectively killing it. From then on, his popularity would only keep falling. Remember FDR's presidency with this sticker.