Truman Administrations - Truman and the Judiciary

Truman and the Judiciary

The Supreme Court had suffered a scare in the mid 1930s when President Roosevelt threatened to increase the number of justices from nine to 15 if that was what it took to get judicial support for his New Deal programs. The Constitution did not specify any particular number of Supreme Court justices, but nine had been the standard for over one hundred years by then. The public outcry at this violation of tradition led Roosevelt to abandon the plan. Meanwhile one judge, Justice Owen Roberts, had begun voting to uphold the New Deal innovations, prompting the jest: "A switch in time saves nine." Truman, inheriting the Roosevelt Court, was able to make four appointments: Harold Burton, Frederick Vinson, Thomas Clark, and Sherman Minton. Burton was a Republican and the other three were Democrats, but all were conservative in outlook and deplored judicial activism. Hugo Black and William O. Douglas were the most...

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