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To: BeerIsGood
You are correct that the Constitution doesn't specify the number of justices. But it would be a terrible precedent. The last president to try to pack the court, as the media referred to it at the time, was FDR. He tried to do it so he could pass his socialist programs, some of which the Supreme Court had struck down. Despite his great popularity, he failed.

If Bush tried it, he would instantly plummet about 30 points in the polls and nothing else would be heard about in the media for the next two years, when he would be thrown out of office.

Not only that, but if by some miracle he succeeded, he would set the precedent for the next clinton to get into the White House. No, not even bill clinton dared to try to pack the court. But wouldn't he have loved it if the Republicans had given him a precedent?
17 posted on 11/10/2002 10:47:44 AM PST by Cicero
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To: Cicero
He tried to do it so he could pass his socialist programs, some of which the Supreme Court had struck down. Despite his great popularity, he failed.

The Supreme Court struck down several of Roosevelt's programs, most notably the NRA (National Recovery Act). And so FDR threatened to increase the SC from 9 to 13.

While his SC packing plan wasn't carried out, it so scared the sitting Justices that they opposed essentially nothing else that he pushed through Congress.

37 posted on 11/10/2002 11:53:07 AM PST by Ole Okie
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