The Supreme Court In The Period Of Roosevelt's New Deal(1933-1939)

There are unique judicial themes and legal theories in every period of American history.All aspects of American society had undergone tremendous changes in the time of 1929 economic crisis and Roosevelt's New Deal.Roosevelt's New Deal is a fateful reform movement,it broke a lot of old systems and established many new standards.During this period,many traditional things in American society had experienced a baptism of innovation.As one of the three pillars of American social and political systems,the Supreme Court had undergone a"Constitutional Revolution"in the period of New Deal.At first,the Supreme Court wanted to maintain the old laissez-faire judicial philosophy,then changed its judicial idea in the struggle with the federal government.Special period of history and social enviornment contributed to the changing of the judicial idea of the Supreme Court:on the one hand,on-limits explanation of the commerce clause in the Constitution explanded the power of federal government to regulate business.On the other hand,the explanation of the due porcess clause of the 14th amendment of the Constitution transfered form substantive to procedural;the focus of judicial review turned to the field of civil rights gradually.The transformation of the Supreme Court in the period of New Deal is a weighty event in the history of the rule of constitutional law and judicature of America.The author tried to explore the process of transformation of judicial idea and summarized its causes and significance.This paper is divided into five chapters.Chapter 1 reviews those decisions from the late 19th century verdicted by the Supreme Court,involving the aspects of labor laws,labor relations,govermental control of society and economy;summed up the mainstream of judicial philosophy succeeded by the Supreme Court in the early period of the New Deal.Meanwhile,the author analyzed the attitude of the Supreme Court to governmental controlling legislation briefly in 1933-1934 and pointed out that the Supreme Court was moderate and tolerant in the process of judicial review.The social environment had forced the judicial branch to make certain concessions to the emergency measures of executive branch.It is for this reason that the Supreme Court had made every decisions to support the New Deal very reluctantly.For example,in Blaisdell,Nebbia and many other cases,the decisions were handed splited by 5 to 4.Jutices Charles Evans Hughes and Owen Josephus Roberts'positon were not firmly, They played a key role.A change in the position of any of them could affect the final outcome.This was a introduction to the Supreme Court's changing of attitude to oppose to New Deal measures after 1935.That ultimately triggered a conflict between judicial branch and executive branch,resulting in a constitutional crisis.Chapter 2 includes the analysis of the Supreme Court overruling New Deal legislation roundly.Through the analysis of the cases of Panama,Schechter,Butler and other typical cases,the author pointed out that the govermental controlling legislations and the establishment of welfare society were not supproted by the Supreme Court.Judicial Activism reached a new peak.The Supreme Court launched a fierce counterattack to the New Deal and its legislations. Although most decisions were handed by 5 to 4,the majority of justices had already changed their postions to fight against the New Deal legislations.Hughes and Roberts changed their transigent attitude,began to oppose to the governmental expanded powers to intervene in and control the economy.The weapons commonly used are the due process clause of 14th amendment and binding interpretation of commerce clause.The times of overruling congress legislations by the Supreme Court had already far exceed the number of the past and the court appeared to be going to stifle the New Deal reform completely.Judicial Activism had reached a new peak,which caused the jurisdiction override the legislative power.The Supreme Court had begun to enter a new instability period,that is the conflict among the power of judicial,legislative,and executive branches.Chapter 3 points out that Roosevelt won the 1936 election,then brought forward the court-packing plan.However,the Supreme Court changed its positon suddenly in early 1937.From the case of West Coast Hotel Company v. Parrish,the Supreme Court had supported governmental labor legislations and welfare legislations one after the other.In 1937 and subsequent years,the Supreme Court made a series of judgements,strongly supported and endorsed Roosevelt's New Deal policy.At the same time,the Supreme Court gave a new interpretation of the dual federalism,greatly expanded the federal government's powers.These decisions strenghened and expanded the power of federal government to control business and economy continuously.The federal government got the power of control and management in the field of labor relations,social security,price control,which couldn't be managed by federal government before.The old state power theory and the concept of substantive due process had been completely abondoned.They could no longer be used to restrict federal management.The decisions in the period of New Deal embodied the contest between the theory of free competition capitalism and national constitutionalism.Eventually,national constitutionalism replaced the old laissez-faire capitalism.American society began to enter an era of governmental controlling of business and economy more deeply and extensively.Meanwhile,the Supreme Court began to change its personnel.Hugo Black replaced one of the four horsemen-Willis Van Devanter and became the first justice appointed by Roosevelt to the Supreme Court.Not only was he a firm supporter of governmental social,economic legislations,but also a tenacious"civil rights fighter".Because the justices of the Supreme Court retired or died one after another,Roosevelt acquired eight chances to appoint justices.He sent to the Supreme Court those supporting the New Deal and sympathizing with the working people,thereby changed the tendency of the Supreme Court completely,laid the foundation for the new judicial concern.Therefore,after 1937,the power of federal government had reached an unprecedented level through commerce clause.The Supreme Court began to pay more attention to civil rights.Chapter 4 illuminates that when the Supreme Court didn't review the governmental economic legislations again and back to judicial restraint,it began to pay attention to the use of judicial review in the field of civil rights.Through reviewing the development of civil rights in the 1st amendment from the early 20th century,the author points out that the Supreme Court incorporated the Bill of Rights into the due process clause of 14th amendment gradually ,thereby enlarged the protection of civil rights in each state.That embodied in the aspects of express freedom,accused's rights in criminal proceedings,religion freedom and the Black's equal rights.The New Deal in 1930s had greatly expanded the power of federal government to intervene in economic things,also extended the scope of intervention and protection of civil liberty and civil rights by federal government.In the late period of the New Deal,especially after the event of Roosevelt's reorganizing court,the federal government had played an increasingly important role in the national economy.The Supreme Court had gradually abondoned the substantive due process in the field of economy and shifted the focus of attention to the protection of civil rights.The most important constitutional basis of governmental controlling of civil freedom and civil rights was the 14th amendment in the late 1930s.In the late period of the New Deal,the federal Supreme Court gave a series of new explanations to the amendments of the Constitution,greatly expanding the scope of federal protection of the civil rights.Thereafter,federal government and the Supreme Court responded to the problem of civil rights and racial equality positively.Through a series of precedents,the Supreme Court ensured the civil rights in the Bill of Rights be immuned from the infringement of the federal government and the state governments.Chapter 5 reviews and reflects on the history of the changing of judicial philosophy of the Supreme Court.The Supreme Court gave a new explanation of commerce clause and due process clause in the time of New Deal.It didn't review the governmental socio-economic legislations any longer,thinking much of the civil rights gradually.The Supreme Court abandoned judicial activism and returned to judicial restraint. The changing of judicial philosophy of the Supreme Court in this period had some reasons:the development of American society and economy,the changing of the situation at home and abroad urged the transformation of judicial idea of the Supreme Court;the traditional status of the Supreme Court in the American legal tradition ensured its standing of trial;the Supreme Court realized its role rightly from judicial activisim ro judicial restraint;the changing of its personnel also affected its judicial idea.Reviewing and reflecting on the changing of judicial idea of the Supreme Court in the New Deal have very important significances.First,the building of a harmonious society requires that the court consider the needs of the community,following the social situation.Second,the independent status of judicial branch must be ensured in the national system.The national conditions of China are different from America,the status of the judicial branch is too low,the executive power is excessively strong to infringe civil rights.Hence we need to strengthen the independence of the judiciary in our system of government and make it become a fortress of civil rights.Third,the current social situation in China is similar to that in the early 20th century in United States.There are many similary social problems between the two countries.How to resolve the relations between economic development and the protection of civil rights?What kind of role does the judiciary play in the process of resolving this issue?We can use for reference the way of solving these problems from the changing of the Supreme Court in the New Deal.As an important participant in the social development and the operation of political system,judicial branch should adopt a pragmatic judicial philosophy as a guide.It is necessary to pay more attention to social realities and not only stick to rigid and outdated principles of justice.Only through this way,the judicial branch can truly become the patron saint of the rule of constitutional law and social justice.The democratization of society and the rule of law can be achieved.How to resolve the problem of harmonize the relationship between the economic development and the protection of civil rights,the author believes that it is necessary to escort the development of economy,pay attention to the protection of property rights and to maintain normal economic order and needs.On the other hand,too rapidly or unbalanced development of economy should be prevented from infringing civil rights.The role of Chinese courts is defferent from that of American courts and played not very well.Therefore,the Chinese court should play a more active and dynamic role.