DOCUMENT A: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Fireside Chat (1937) What is my proposal? It is simply this:...

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DOCUMENT A: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Fireside Chat" (1937) What is my proposal? It is simply this: whenever a judge or justice of any federal court has reached the age of seventy and does not take the opportunity to retire on a pension, a new member shall be appointed by the president then in office, with the approval, as required by the Constitution, of the Senate of the United States. That plan has two chief purposes. By bringing into the judicial system a steady and continuing stream of new and younger blood, I hope, first, to make the administration of all federal justice, from the bottom to the top, speedier and, therefore, less costly; secondly, to bring to the decision of social and economic problems younger men who have had personal experience and contact with modern facts and circumstances under which average men have to live and work. This plan will save our national Constitution from hardening of the judicial arteries. Guiding Questions 1. What is the main idea of Document A? 2. In your opinion, is the plan to "pack the court" evidence that FDR had too much power? Why / why not? DOCUMENT A: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Fireside Chat" (1937) What is my proposal? It is simply this: whenever a judge or justice of any federal court has reached the age of seventy and does not take the opportunity to retire on a pension, a new member shall be appointed by the president then in office, with the approval, as required by the Constitution, of the Senate of the United States. That plan has two chief purposes. By bringing into the judicial system a steady and continuing stream of new and younger blood, I hope, first, to make the administration of all federal justice, from the bottom to the top, speedier and, therefore, less costly; secondly, to bring to the decision of social and economic problems younger men who have had personal experience and contact with modern facts and circumstances under which average men have to live and work. This plan will save our national Constitution from hardening of the judicial arteries. Guiding Questions 1. What is the main idea of Document A? 2. In your opinion, is the plan to "pack the court" evidence that FDR had too much power? Why / why not?

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The document describes that the judges should retire at the age of seventy else t... View the full answer