The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations Used in the Footnotes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Old Regime
- Part II Early Progressivism
- Part III Late Progressivism
- 11 Wilsonian Progressivism
- 12 The New Freedom
- 13 The New Wilson
- 14 The Great War
- 15 The Return of the Regular Republicans
- 16 The Taft Court
- 17 The Last Progressive
- Part IV The New Deal
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Primary Sources
- Index
- References
16 - The Taft Court
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations Used in the Footnotes
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The Old Regime
- Part II Early Progressivism
- Part III Late Progressivism
- 11 Wilsonian Progressivism
- 12 The New Freedom
- 13 The New Wilson
- 14 The Great War
- 15 The Return of the Regular Republicans
- 16 The Taft Court
- 17 The Last Progressive
- Part IV The New Deal
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Primary Sources
- Index
- References
Summary
PERSONNEL AND POWER
The Supreme Court under William Howard Taft sometimes curtailed progressivism, but also preserved and extended progressive reforms. The stakes were high for Taft. In the 1920 campaign he had warned that Wilson favored “a latitudinarian construction of the Constitution” that would “weaken the protection it should afford against socialistic raids upon property rights.” Though Wilson’s first Court appointment, James McReynolds, had disappointed progressives, “the other two represent a new school of constitutional construction, which if allowed to prevail will greatly impair our fundamental law.” Taft believed that Wilson had appointed Brandeis and Clarke to undermine the Constitution. He considered the Democratic nominee, James Cox, a trimmer who would follow the party line laid down by his predecessor. Taft noted that four justices were more than seventy years old, and that voters faced “no greater domestic issue in this election” than their replacement. Taft had posed judicial selection as the paramount issue in the previous three presidential contests, and had predicted that Wilson would replace four justices in his second term when in fact he chose none. But this time Taft proved prescient.
Few men have had Taft’s opportunity to shape the Supreme Court. He appointed five justices as President, and exerted great influence on the five (including himself) selected by Presidents Harding and Coolidge. But his choices were remarkably short-lived and mediocre. The ten served an average of eleven years each; Taft’s five appointees lasted only eight years. His successor, Woodrow Wilson, replaced three of them in one term. Taft served barely one year with Mahlon Pitney; only Willis Van Devanter survivied him. The longest-serving justice, Van Devanter, was probably the poorest choice in terms of efficiency, the professional standard that Taft so often praised in the judicial branch, but compensated for it in collegiality. In jurisprudential terms, only Taft himself and George Sutherland have been ranked highly.
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- The American State from the Civil War to the New DealThe Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism, pp. 189 - 209Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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