The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations Used in the Footnotes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Old Regime
- Part II Early Progressivism
- Part III Late Progressivism
- Part IV The New Deal
- 18 The Hundred Days
- 19 To the Brink
- 20 The Second New Deal
- 21 The Court Fight
- 22 The Abortive Third New Deal
- 23 The New Deal Court
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Primary Sources
- Index
- References
21 - The Court Fight
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations Used in the Footnotes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Old Regime
- Part II Early Progressivism
- Part III Late Progressivism
- Part IV The New Deal
- 18 The Hundred Days
- 19 To the Brink
- 20 The Second New Deal
- 21 The Court Fight
- 22 The Abortive Third New Deal
- 23 The New Deal Court
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Primary Sources
- Index
- References
Summary
THE PLAN
Roosevelt-haters still claim that the president let the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor as the only way to galvanize popular support for the war he wanted. Enough circumstantial evidence of American officials’ anticipation of an attack makes the charge plausible. In fact, historians have concluded that there was too much advance warning – so mixed with conflicting signals that it was overlooked as “noise.” One could say the same about Roosevelt’s constitutional Pearl Harbor, the court-packing plan of 1937, which took the country by surprise despite the innumerable speculations about such a plan that had circulated even before he was elected. Several magazines had broached the possibility of court-packing during Roosevelt’s first campaign and early in his presidency. Roosevelt himself had promoted William Randolph Hearst’s film version of a political fantasy, Gabriel over the White House, in which the president induces Congress to expand the Supreme Court to fifteen justices. It had come up again in 1935, before the Court’s gold-clause decisions. Alf Landon warned late in the 1936 campaign that Roosevelt might “tamper with the Supreme Court.” Publisher Paul Block reported that Roosevelt had discussed packing the Court after Black Monday. The President twice used George Creel in Colliers magazine to suggest that he was considering packing the Court – in August of 1935 and again in December 1936 – but the articles attracted little notice. In January 1937 Donald Richberg told Washington journalist Raymond Clapper that “Roosevelt has a number of bombshells ready. . . Roosevelt is in an audacious mood and is even thinking of proposing to pack the Supreme Court by enlarging it. . .. Roosevelt is determined to curb the court and put it in its place, and will go ahead even if many people think it unwise.” Clapper did not report the story.
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- Information
- The American State from the Civil War to the New DealThe Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism, pp. 275 - 295Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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