In the nearly two-hundred-year history of the American republic, no episode resulted in so sharp a confrontation between and among the three branches of the national government as the proposal Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled on February 5, 1937, to reorganize the federal judiciary. Promptly dubbed the "Court-packing plan," FDR's recommendations constituted an effort by the chief executive to alter the outlook of the Supreme Court to such an extent that it would henceforth validate virtually all acts of Congress, especially socio-economic measures. Instead of forging an alliance of the executive and legislative branches against the judiciary, however, the ensuing struggle pitted the executive against a powerful segment of the legislative with the judicial branch playing a not inconsequential role in how the battle came out. The repercussions of that momentous combat continue to reverberate in our own day.