After the court packing attempt, how did the change in the jurisprudence of the united states supreme court affect american life? changing sentiments in the united states supreme court led to the erosion of the wagner act. the newfound resolve of the united states supreme court meant a restoration of the national recovery act. the new lineup in the united states meant that roosevelt had to abandon plans for universal health care. the new political climate in the united states supreme court meant that a federal child labor ban could stand constitutional muster. a chastised supreme court began to focus on securing constitutional protections for a burgeoning civil rights movement.

Explanation / historical context

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was eager to implement his New Deal programs as an antidote to the Great Depression.  However, the US Supreme Court had already ruled that some provisions of the New Deal were unconstitutional, because they took too much power into the hands of the federal government, especially the executive branch of the federal government.  So, riding the momentum of his landslide reelection victory in 1936, in February of 1937, FDR proposed a plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges.  The plan offered to provide full pay to justices over age 70 who would retire.  If the older justices didn't retire, assistant justices (with full voting rights) would be appointed to sit with those existing justices.  This was a way FDR hoped to give the court a liberal majority that would side with his programs.

As it turned out, before FDR's proposal came up for a vote in Congress, two of the sitting justices came over to his side of the argument, and the Supreme Court narrowly approved as constitutional both the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Act.  So the court packing  plan became unnecessary to his purposes. 

Child labor was regulated by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.  In a unanimous decision in United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (1941), the US Supreme Court upheld the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.  The Court ruled that Congress had power, under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, to regulate employment conditions.