Keywords

Justice Owen J. Roberts, Supreme Court, switch in time that saved nine, Franklin D. Roosevelt, court packing plan

Abstract

The motivations for Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts’ so-called “switch in time that saved nine” in 1937 remain largely obscured. For much of the past 75 years, judges, lawyers and scholars have discussed—including recently in this journal—why Justice Roberts would vote to uphold minimum-wage legislation in March 1937 when he had voted to invalidate similar legislation in June 1936. Given that President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled his court-packing plan on February 5, 1937, externalists have ascribed political motivations to Roberts and the Court. Internalists, meanwhile, have pointed to legal reasons for the switch. However, with the exception of a memorandum Roberts gave to Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1945 that was first published a decade later, Roberts’ own voice has been largely missing.

Original Publication Citation

Carter, E. L., & Adams, E. E. (2012). Justice Owen J. Roberts on 1937. Green Bag, 15.