On 5 Feb 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed an increase in the size of the US Supreme Court—his ‘court packing’ proposal.
It was the great depression and his “stimulus” packages weren’t working and there were lots of people out of work; the states were having trouble caring for the unemployed. So, FDR decided the federal govt should help; his Dem controlled Congress passed a law creating what became Social Security. The US Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional–the welfare of the people was clearly the states’ responsibility alone.
Roosevelt responded with a bill to increase the size of the Court to 17–so he could appoint 8 new Justices–all of whom would agree with him. This bill failed to pass Congress. However, the Supremes got the message; the next time it just might pass. So guess what? Long story short, the Supremes decided that it was constitutional for the federal govt to get into welfare. The result: Hello, Judicial interpretation. And the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution was abandoned.
We need to undo all the unconstitutional judicial-interpretation stuff that has since been permitted and get back to the US Constitution.
