A Muted Fury: Populists, Progressives, and Labor Unions Confront the Courts, 1890–1937

Description

For half a century before 1937, populists, progressives, and labor leaders complained bitterly that a "judicial oligarchy" impeded social and economic reform by imposing crippling restraints on trade unions and nullifying legislation that regulated business corporations. A Muted Fury, the first study of this neglected chapter in American political and legal history, explains the origins of hostility toward the courts during the Progressive Era, examines in detail the many measures that antagonists of the judiciary proposed for the curtailment of judicial power, and evaluates the successes and failures of the anti-court movements. Tapping a broad array of sources, including popular literature and unpublished manuscripts, William Ross demonstrates that this widespread fury against the judiciary was muted by many factors, including respect for judicial power, internal divisions among the judiciary's critics, institutional obstacles to reform, and the judiciary's own willingness to mitigate its hostility toward progressive legislation and labor. Ross argues that persistent criticism of the courts influenced judicial behavior, even though the antagonists of the courts failed in their many efforts to curb judicial power. The book's interdisciplinary exploration of the complex interactions among politics, public opinion, judicial decision-making, the legislative process, and the activities of organized interest groups provides fresh insights into the perennial controversy over the scope of judicial power in America. Cover ......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 1 The Seeds of Discord......Page 36 2 Challenges to Constitutional Orthodoxy......Page 62 3 Meliorative Measures......Page 83 4 Reconstructing the Bench......Page 99 5 The Judicial Recall Movement......Page 123 6 Theodore Roosevelt and the Judicial Referendum......Page 143 7 Ebb and Flow, 1913-1921......Page 168 8 The Taft Court and the Return of "Normalcy"......Page 192 9 The La Follette Proposal......Page 206 10 The Borah Proposal......Page 231 11 The Supreme Court Calms the Tempest......Page 246 12 The Judicial Issue in the 1924 Election......Page 267 13 Final Conflicts, 1925-1937......Page 298 Conclusion......Page 326 Index......Page 338