Cliff Sloan Quotes
Certain characteristics about 'Marbury v. Madison' are, I think, indisputable. Marbury was the first Supreme Court decision ever to strike down an act of Congress as unconstitutional. Marbury stands for the authority of the Supreme Court to have and to exercise that power.
Sloan, Cliff, and David McKean. The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court. PublicAffairs, 2009.
Cummings was arguing against a Constitutional amendment. His alternative led to Roosevelt's court packing schema.
Judicial Review is the principle which allows a court—judges—to declare an act of the legislature or the executive improper and unlawful. It is a standard principle of American government yet it was not explicitly stated in the Constitution. Hence to some, there is a question about the legitimacy of Judicial Review itself. Many nations do not have it. Many people think it is the most important aspect of a democratic society as it provides a check on both the executive and the legislature.
Bork was the proponent of the theory that the Supreme Court constantly exceeded its authority and became a de facto legislature to make reforms the elite, intellectual elements of society desired as opposed to what the majority wanted.
For the phrase the "The Constitution follows the flag," see the Democratic Party platform of 1900.
The Roosevelt administration had stemmed the tide of Hoover’s Great Depression but the nation had not yet recovered. The New Deal measures, most of which would be considered fundamental to good government 50 years later was being constantly thwarted by a Supreme Court with a strong arch conservative majority headed by James McReynolds, a virulent, overt, anti-Semitic racist, who hated FDR—see {616652} and {585241}. The situation was to many like that which existed before the Civil War when the Court rendered the Dred Scott decision that so harmed the nation. Frankfurter, not then a Supreme Court Justice, urged Roosevelt to do something lest the American Public lose all respect for the Court and our Constitutional system and have the nation harmed by not allowing reforms like child labor laws to go through. The court actually ruled by a narrow majority that the government could not pass laws making it illegal for 11 year old children to work in coal mines or factories. FDR attempted to add more justices turning the majority into a majority—“packing the Supreme Court”, but that politically backfired. Some of the reforms never went through while others needed Constitutional Amendments like the end to Prohibition.
Originally it was published in Boston under the name “A Columbian Patriot.” She was worried about the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court extending throughout the country and yet the nation was very much smaller then than it is today. However, transport and communications have grown with the country.
Hatch was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.
Clifford Sloan is an American diplomat who served as Special Envoy for Guantanamo Closure at the United States Department of State. Sloan is currently a Dean's Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law Center and retired partner for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates. Previously, Sloan was the publisher of Slate magazine.
