How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution Part III: The Court on the Brink
The first installment in this series explained that the Constitution created a small and frugal federal government. This didn’t change materially until the 1930s and 1940s. The second installment profiled the Supreme Court justices serving in the period 1934–1937,...
How the Supreme Court Rewrote the Constitution: 1937–1944 Part II: The Stage is Set
The first installment in this series described America’s limited and frugal federal government from 1789 until the 1930s. This second installment explains how the stage was set for radical change. Crisis and Depression In October 1929, a financial bubble broke. As...
How the Supreme Court rewrote the Constitution: 1937–1944; Part I
The Constitution created a relatively small federal government, with powers limited to certain listed subjects. It was a frugal institution, designed to “preserve the blessings of Liberty” and to bring out the best in human beings. So how did it happen that federal...