February 12, 1937, New York Herald-Tribune, “Qualifying Test For Supreme Court Jobs”

Many people were very critical about the Supreme Court’s willingness to accept the New Deal. This cartoon was drawn at the time when FDR won his second term as president with a landslide victory.The cartoon shows FDR saying a command and the Supreme Court Justices abiding by what he said. The artist of the cartoon depicts the justice scales and the Constitution in the trash can.

According to Foner, “the court’s willingness to accept the New Deal marked a permanent change in judicial policy” and many begin to worry that FDR was becoming more of a dictator and making way for presidents after him to become dictators. Some felt that the court became more supportive of the New Deal because of FDR’s “court packing” proposal that he made to Congress (which was rejected). I think that some of the justices felt that FDR might replace them.