FDR came up with the court packing scheme after the supreme court kept shooting down New Deal programs. Basically he said that the current supreme court judges were overworked, so he was trying to get congress' approval to add 6 young, liberal judges to the supreme court, giving him the majority. Congress very nearly passed it, but one of the judges decided to switch sides to make the court always agree with FDR, meaning the bill was never passed and FDR got his way.
