PLAN TO REFORM COURT

Southland Times, Issue 23128, 19 February 1937, Page 5

PLAN TO REFORM COURT

PRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL BEFORE SENATE (Received February 19, 1.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, February 18. Two resolutions proposing constitutional amendments limiting the powers of the Supreme Court were introduced in the Senate. One would permit Congress to re-enact, by a two-thirds vote, each branch of the law invalidated by the Court, but only after a regular election in which members of the House of were elected. The other provides for the voluntary retirement of justices at the age of 70 and compels their retirement at 75. ' During the debate in the Senate, Senator Kenneth McKellar (Democrat, Tennessee), in a two-hour speech defending the programme put forward by the President (Mr Franklin D. Roosevelt), was interrupted frequently by Senator W. F. George (Democrat, Georgie), and Tom Connally (Democrat, Texas). Senator McKellar stated that the National Recovery Act decision was correct but that on the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and other close decisions were blunders. He argued that Mr Roosevelt by his victory at the polls had a mandate to do something about the Court. Senator George insisted that the plan was un-American, and Senator Connally merely interposed questions. Mr William Green, president of the American Federation of Labour, has announced that the federation would' support the President. The latest poll of the Senate shows 34 against the proposal, 33 for it and 29 uncommitted. The Christian Science Monitor held a poll which showed that more than two-thirds of the newspaper’s readers who supported Mr Roosevelt for reelection declared against the Court proposal. Only 19 approved.