His plan was not entirely new, as he stated in his “Fireside Chat on Reorganization of the Judiciary,” on March 9, 1937. He stated that, “Normally, every president appoints a large number of District and Circuit Court Judges and a few members of the Supreme Court. Until my first term, practically every President of the United States has appointed at least one member of the Supreme Court.” He explained that President Taft had appointed five members, President Wilson had appointed three, and President Harding had appointed four, including a Chief Justice. President Coolidge had appointed one justice, and President Hoover had appointed three, including a Chief Justice. His plan for reorganization was merely a revival of a plan suggested by Justice McReynolds, himself, when he was Attorney General of the United States.

In his “Fireside Chat,” it appears that Roosevelt appeale

d to the American people for their aid in passage of this bill. He stated, “ It is the American people themselves who are in the driver’s seat. It is the American people themselves who want the furrow plowed. It is the American people themselves who expect the third horse to pull in unison with the other two.” The third horse that he referred to was the Courts. He described the American form of Government as a three-horse team provided by the Constitution to the American people “so that their field might be plowed.” He believed that the other two “horses,” the Congress and the Executive Branch, were “ pulling in unison today; the third horse is not,” meaning that the Courts were severely behind, making the work load heavier on the other two “horses,” one of them being himself, the President of the United States. He asked the American people to trust him, and believed that they would sway Congress to his side. He stated, “All we have to do is to let the flood of mail settle on Congress. You just wait. All I have to do is to deliver a better speech and the opposition will be beating a path to the White House door.”

He believed the Courts would benefit from a younger point of view. The bill would give him the power to appoint a justice for every member of the Court, age 70 and above, who refused to retire. He could appoint as many as six justices, with the approval of the Senate, as required by the Constitution. His reasoning for the necessity of this reorganization was that the Court was lagging behind in its work due to the ages and infirmities of its justices. He wanted to “infuse new blood into all of our courts.” He

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