Today in History, February 5th
On February 5, 1937, FDR unveiled his plan to add justices to the Supreme Court. Plus Mexico's constitution and Apollo 14 on the Moon.
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February 5 is best known for 1937, when Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled his plan to add up to six justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, a scheme critics quickly called “court-packing.” The date also saw Mexico’s modern constitution proclaimed in 1917 and Apollo 14’s astronauts reach the Moon in 1971.
The big story: FDR’s Court-Packing Plan (1937)
Fresh off a landslide reelection, Franklin Roosevelt had a problem that voters could not fix. A Supreme Court majority had struck down key New Deal programs, and the justices served for life. On February 5, 1937, he sent Congress a proposal to reorganize the federal courts. The headline item: for every justice over 70 who did not retire, the president could appoint an extra one, up to six new seats. Roosevelt framed it as helping an overworked, aging bench. Few people bought that. Critics in both parties saw an attempt to pack the Court with friendly votes, and the backlash cost him a good deal of political support. Congress never passed the plan. Roosevelt may have won anyway. That spring, the Court began upholding New Deal laws, a shift often credited to Justice Owen Roberts and nicknamed “the switch in time that saved nine,” though some scholars dispute that story. The Court has stayed at nine seats ever since.
More events on February 5
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1631 | Roger Williams, who later founded Rhode Island, arrived in Boston from England. (Old Style date) |
| 1883 | The Southern Pacific Railroad completed its route linking New Orleans and California. |
| 1917 | Mexican President Venustiano Carranza proclaimed the constitution that still governs Mexico. |
| 1917 | Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson’s veto to pass an immigration law that required a literacy test for new arrivals. |
| 1919 | Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith founded the United Artists film studio. |
| 1971 | Apollo 14’s Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell landed in the Moon’s Fra Mauro highlands. |
| 1994 | White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, more than 30 years after the killing. |
| 2003 | Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN Security Council that Iraq posed a serious threat, helping build the case for war. Much of his case later proved weak. |
Born on February 5
- 1900: Adlai Stevenson, Illinois governor, two-time Democratic presidential nominee and UN ambassador.
- 1914: William S. Burroughs, Beat Generation writer of Naked Lunch.
- 1934: Hank Aaron, baseball slugger who hit 755 career home runs.
Keep reading
Sources
- FDR’s “Court-Packing” Plan, Federal Judicial Center
- This Day in History: February 5, History.com
- Apollo 14, NASA
- Adlai E. Stevenson, Britannica
- William S. Burroughs, Britannica
- Hank Aaron, Britannica
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