Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, University of Ulster (Faculty of Arts - American Studies), course: America in the Depression 1929 - 1941, language: English, abstract: Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to change the composition of the American Supreme Court can be seen from different perspectives. Some historians depict the Supreme Court debacle as the beginning of the end of the New Deal, whereas "in later years, Roosevelt [himself], asserted that the court-packing fiasco was one in which he lost the battle but won the war [...]" (Coker, p. 114). In this essay, I will describe the situation which led to his proposal of reorganization, his further proceedings and the reactions to them. I will also analyze the results and the effects which it had on the New Deal during his continuing presidency.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, University of Ulster (Faculty of Arts - American Studies), course: America in the Depression 1929 - 1941, language: English, abstract: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempt to change the composition of the American Supreme Court can be seen from different perspectives. Some historians depict the Supreme Court debacle as the beginning of the end of the New Deal, whereas “in later years, Roosevelt [himself], asserted that the court-packing fiasco was one in which he lost the battle but won the war [...]” (Coker, p. 114). In this essay, I will describe the situation which led to his proposal of reorganization, his further proceedings and the reactions to them. I will also analyze the results and the effects which it had on the New Deal during his continuing presidency.

"A stunning work of history."—Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of No Ordinary Time and Team of Rivals Beginning in 1935, the Supreme Court's conservative majority left much of FDR's agenda in ruins. The pillars of the New Deal fell in short succession. It was not just the New Deal but democracy itself that stood on trial. In February 1937, Roosevelt struck back with an audacious plan to expand the Court to fifteen justices—and to "pack" the new seats with liberals who shared his belief in a "living" Constitution.

Rule of law and constitutionalist ideals are understood by many, if not most, as necessary to create a just political order. Defying the traditional division between normative and positive theoretical approaches, this book explores how political reality on the one hand, and constitutional ideals on the other, mutually inform and influence each other. Seventeen chapters from leading international scholars cover a diverse range of topics and case studies to test the hypothesis that the best normative theories, including those regarding the role of constitutions, constitutionalism and the rule of law, conceive of the ideal and the real as mutually regulating.

In his first term in office, Franklin Roosevelt helped pull the nation out of the Great Depression with his landmark programs. In November 1936, every state except Maine and Vermont voted enthusiastically for his reelection. But then the political winds shifted. Not only did the Supreme Court block some of his transformational experiments, but he also faced serious opposition within his own party. Conservative Democrats such as Senators Walter George of Georgia and Millard Tydings of Maryland allied themselves with Republicans to vote down New Deal bills. Susan Dunn tells the dramatic story of FDRÕs unprecedented battle to drive his foes out of his party by intervening in Democratic primaries and backing liberal challengers to conservative incumbents. Reporters branded his tactic a ÒpurgeÓÑand the inflammatory label stuck. Roosevelt spent the summer months of 1938 campaigning across the country, defending his progressive policies and lashing out at conservatives. Despite his efforts, the Democrats took a beating in the midterm elections. The purge stemmed not only from FDRÕs commitment to the New Deal but also from his conviction that the nation needed two responsible political parties, one liberal, the other conservative. Although the purge failed, at great political cost to the president, it heralded the realignment of political parties that would take place in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. By the end of the century, the irreconcilable tensions within the Democratic Party had exploded, and the once solidly Democratic South was solid no more. It had taken sixty years to resolve the tangled problems to which FDR devoted one frantic, memorable summer.

An in-depth analysis of the workings and legacy of the Supreme Court led by Charles Evans Hughes. Charles Evans Hughes, a man who, it was said, "looks like God and talks like God," became chief justice in 1930, a year when more than 1,000 banks closed their doors. Today the Hughes Court is often remembered as a conservative bulwark against Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. But that view, according to author Michael Parrish, is not accurate. In an era when Nazi Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws and extinguished freedom in much of Western Europe, the Hughes Court put the stamp of constitutional approval on New Deal entitlements, required state and local governments to bring their laws into conformity with the federal Bill of Rights, and took the first steps toward developing a more uniform code of criminal justice.