| Popis: |
Chapter 4 shows FDR and members of his administration beginning to speak frankly about why they needed more justices—to stanch the flow of conservative decisions, not to assist the superannuated. It also details the court’s public entrance into a fight that, up to this point, had featured the president versus the Senate. The chief justice released a letter showing that the court needed no help and that additional justices would only slow things down. At the same time, the court upheld minimum wage legislation similar to that which it had struck down in 1936. Whether it changed its tune and, if so, all the clamor over the bill caused it to do so has been debated since 1937. Yet as the chapter shows, the justices’ first dramatic “self-reversal” made little difference to the expectation of victory for the principle of court enlargement, and perhaps for FDR’s bill. As the wild card, however, the court made it difficult to predict the future, and everything would hinge on what it did next. |
