Final answer:
President Franklin Roosevelt's attempt to expand the Supreme Court in 1937 was a strategic move to appoint justices who would support his New Deal policies, despite presenting the proposal as an effort to ease the workload for older justices. The correct answer is option 4.
Step-by-step explanation:
President Franklin Roosevelt proposed expanding the number of Supreme Court justices through his Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, commonly referred to as the "court-packing scheme". Roosevelt's official justification was to alleviate the workload of the Court and to provide assistance to older justices. However, the true motive was rooted in his frustration with the Supreme Court for striking down key components of his New Deal legislation, which were aimed at addressing the problems of the Great Depression. The plan would grant him the power to appoint additional justices sympathetic to his policies, specifically by adding one justice for each sitting justice over the age of seventy. This would have potentially expanded the Court from nine to as many as fifteen justices. Despite the contentious nature of this proposal, Roosevelt never implemented the plan, although the political pressure may have influenced subsequent Court decisions more favorable to the New Deal.