Presidential Biographies | Franklin D. Roosevelt Administrations - Roosevelt and the Judiciary

Roosevelt and the Judiciary

When Roosevelt was elected president the Supreme Court consisted of nine justices: Willis Van Devanter, James McReynolds, George Sutherland, Pierce Butler, Owen J. Roberts, Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo, and Harlan F. Stone, and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. There was a clear philosophical divergence on the Court. Van Devanter, McReynolds, Sutherland, and Butler were conservatives, while Brandeis, Cardozo, and Stone were liberals. Roberts and Hughes were regarded as "swing men," meaning they alternated their votes from one position to the other. During Roosevelt's first term the justices generally regarded much of the New Deal legislation as an unwarranted assault on private property, contract rights, and the time-honored fundamentals of the American economic system.

The Court and the New Deal

Many of the...