| Date |
Author and Title |
Quote |
|
January 15, 1936 |
The Nation, Editorial
The Supreme Court Swings the Ax |
"Even while he was delivering his message to Congress, Mr. Roosevelt was speaking in the shadow of the court's power. Now the court proves definitely that it is the last bulwark of the vested interests. They have been displaced from the Legislative and have been outwitted by the Executive; they find their last refuge in the Judiciary." [source] |
|
1936 |
Robert E. Cushman
The Supreme Court and the Constitution |
"If we feel that the constitutional wreckage left by the New Deal decisions is due to the abuse of judicial power rather than to the inadequacy of the Constitution to modern needs, then we may logically demand some limitation on the power of the Supreme Court." [source] |
|
February 8, 1937 |
The New York Herald-Tribune
Editorial |
"It was a French King, Louis XIV, who said, "L'etat, c'est moi"—"I am the State." The paper shell of American constitutionalism would continue if President Roosevelt secured the passage of the law he now demands. But it would be only a shell." [source] |
|
February 13, 1937 |
The Nation
Purging the Supreme Court |
"...it is the task of progressives to support the measure—with an open-eyed awareness of its shortcomings. It will clear the blockage of New Deal legislation—at least for the immediate future. Meanwhile it will have delivered a blow to the sanctity of the Supreme Court from which the court will never wholly recover." [source] |
|
March 17,1937 |
The New Republic
The President Faces the Court |
"It is now clear, in our opinion, that neither the President nor anyone else has any marked enthusiasm for the device now under consideration. But no one has any enthusiasm, either, for the situation into which the conservative majority of the Court has brought us by a series of political decisions, politically inspired." [source] |