Wheeler and the Court Fight
Medium
Drawing
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of John L. Wheeler
Accession Number
NPG.84.162
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
In this 1937 caricature, President Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945; right) faces off against his attorney general, Homer Cummings (1870–1956; left), at a bowling alley. In February of that year, Roosevelt proposed legislation that would increase the number of federal judges, including those on the Supreme Court, which had struck down many of his New Deal programs. The bill would allow the president to add judges for each incumbent who was seventy or older, which would give him up to six Supreme Co...