A new book I can't wait to read.............................
Basically the author is writing about FDR in power with a Democratic Congress and a Conservative Supreme Court that refused to let the Dems usurp the Constitution over & over again with the New Deal.
FDR tried like hell to put 15 members on SCOTUS so that his tyranny would hold the day..
Basically the author is writing about FDR in power with a Democratic Congress and a Conservative Supreme Court that refused to let the Dems usurp the Constitution over & over again with the New Deal.
FDR tried like hell to put 15 members on SCOTUS so that his tyranny would hold the day..
Probably FDR’s most consequential political miscue as president—his proposal in 1937 to increase the membership of the Supreme Court—is the topic of journalist Solomon’s lively historical narrative. Bringing forth the important political players, Solomon highlights FDR and his conservative antagonists on the Court, who had invalidated many New Deal programs. Professing to lighten their labors with his proposal, FDR dissembled about his true aim of appointing new liberal justices, which even stout New Dealers sensed as a dangerous presidential power-grab: a key Democratic congressman said, “Boys, here’s where I cash in my chips.” That, a refutation of the overwork thesis by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and an impassioned defense of the Supreme Court’s independence by Montana senator Burton Wheeler defeated the plan. Parallel to recounting the public politics, Solomon dramatizes the Court’s internal politics in response to the institutional threat it felt, including—most memorably for historical lore—“a switch in time saved nine,” pro–New Deal votes by hitherto anti–New Dealer Justice Owen Roberts. A fluid portrayal of the court-packing episode that will appeal to history buffs.