What FDR did manage to do was intimidate the Court into approving most of his programs anyway.
What FDR did manage to do was intimidate the Court into approving most of his programs anyway.
Every so often TBP you actually make sense. Not sure of the ratio between TDS Trump Derangement posts to relatively normal but there might be hope for you yet.
The thing about FDR is that he of course had a Congress to back him up. It is the very reason there was a New Deal in the first place. And since Congress can alter the makeup of the Supreme Court, to intimidate them was a simple exercise of arithmetic. And the numbers for FDR were staggering ...
========================= HOUSE ======= SENATE =========== Session === Years ===== (D) - (R) ==== (D) - (R) ========= .71st ... 1929-1931 ... 163 - 267 ..... 39 - 56 ... Hoover .72nd ... 1931-1933 ... 216 - 218 ..... 47 - 48 ... " .73rd ... 1933-1935 ... 313 - 117 ..... 59 - 36 ... FDR 1st .74th ... 1935-1937 ... 322 - 103 ..... 69 - 25 ... " .75th ... 1937-1939 ... 333 - 89 ..... 75 - 17 ... FDR 2nd .76th ... 1939-1941 ... 262 - 169 ..... 69 - 23 ... " .77th ... 1941-1943 ... 267 - 162 ..... 66 - 28 ... FDR 3rd .78th ... 1943-1945 ... 222 - 209 ..... 57 - 38 ... "
It was in 1936 that the Court struck down the AAA, the massive federalization of farming agriculture based on the ridiculous notion of being necessary because their products affect the prices of other unrelated things, which is the root of the basis for all commerce clause federalization.
That ruling and then FDR's subsequent re-election altered the course of history. The "intimidation" really occurred in between 74th and 75th Congresses, just look at the new margins that FDR received after his 1936 re-election with an astonishing House majority of 333-89 and a Senate 75-17.
FDR never had a single moment where he could not do whatever he wanted. Our Congress was practically a politburo and Stalin and Hitler were likely jealous. But the sequence of events is what actually killed us. His re-election was the message the Court was looking at and that is what actually destroyed the Constitution.
If our current Congress holds fast, I mean if the Senate and Mitch and McCain hold off the begging of Schumer and Durbin and Graham, and avoid the inevitable 'offers they can't refuse' from Dumbo ( just imagine Barry agreeing to some huge budget concession or even on firearms so the Republicrats can brag they won something ) in exchange for a vote on his Supreme Court selection, then we can win this thing, but only if they hold fast.
I'm not optimistic.