Great Depression and the New Deal

Brinkley, Alan the Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. 4th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill 2004.

FDR Question

There is almost something comical about the level of the outrage expressed by contemporary Democrats regarding the appointment of John Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. While not to mitigate the importance of the Supreme Court as enforcing the law of the land, the fact that John Roberts might -- gasp -- interpret the constitution with a more strict constructionalist viewpoint than his moderate predecessor seems far less hubristic in comparison to President Roosevelt's efforts to stuff the U.S. Supreme Court with new numbers of justices. Roosevelt openly wished to increase the number of justices specified in the Constitution for the highest court of the land to make it easier for him to enforce...
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