# A question about the law of packing the court .

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-law-of-packing-the-court/921110>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [September 21, 2020, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-law-of-packing-the-court/921110 "2020-09-21T03:15:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-law-of-packing-the-court/921110/41 "2020-09-22T21:26:42Z")

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Anything’s possible when the shit hits the fan, but there’s no mechanism under the current constitutional structure that would allow the courts to decide their own makeup.

If someone tried to run for a third term as president, their nomination would be challenged in all 50 states and the federal courts would have little to do with it.

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**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-law-of-packing-the-court/921110/42 "2020-09-22T22:04:38Z")

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> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> FDR put 9 guys on the court from 1937 to 1943.

He nominated nine Justices to the Supreme Court, but one of those (Justice Stone, the other other Harlan) was already on the court, put there by President Coolidge. President Roosevelt nominated Associate Justice Stone to Chief Justice. So Roosevelt only _put_ eight guys on the court.

~Max

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-law-of-packing-the-court/921110/43 "2020-09-23T02:01:26Z")

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> [@friedo](#):
>
> If someone tried to run for a third term as president, their nomination would be challenged in all 50 states and the federal courts would have little to do with it.

I expect the states could “challenge” that easily, and I suppose most of them would, without going to any courts, simply by the various Secretaries of State(s) just refusing to put this hypothetical candidate’s name on the ballots in their states.

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