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This is the kind of thing that really scares people, and re-established political equilibrium. An op-ed from today's New York Times:

...there is nothing sacrosanct about having nine justices on the Supreme Court. Roosevelt?s 1937 chicanery has given court-packing a bad name, but it is a hallowed American political tradition participated in by Republicans and Democrats alike.

If the current five-man majority persists in thumbing its nose at popular values, the election of a Democratic president and Congress could provide a corrective. It requires only a majority vote in both houses to add a justice or two. Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues might do well to bear in mind that the roll call of presidents who have used this option includes not just Roosevelt but also Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant.

The author, a biographer of FDR, calls the liberal agenda "popular values" and the conservative agenda "manifestly ideological." But normal Americans are going to be terrified at the idea of stacking the court in either direction. And if court-stacking is such a great tradition, then why did the threat of it tarnish FDR's reputation?

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