Max Baucus Quotes
The Founding Fathers provided a way to reverse unpopular Supreme Court decisions: a constitutional amendment.
Baucus, Max. Remarks on Constitutional Amendments. Congressional Record, vol. 128, Government Printing Office, 1982.
Jefferson’s fears were later reinforced by John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison {606468}
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.
Hatch was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.
This surprising quote of Roosevelt’s is noteworthy for two reasons. First most of us are amazed that one of our greatest presidents were opposed to the Checks and Balances of the Constitution as it has been interpreted since Chief Justice Marshall and his Court asserted the power of Judicial Review. Second, at the beginning of the 21st century the Republicans / Conservatives opposed the power of the Supreme Court and wanted it diminished, while the Democrats were strong supporters of judicial review. In TR’s era, the parties were flip flopped. It was William Jennings Brian and the Democrats who wanted to curtail the power of the court (they had then found even the income tax unconstitutional), while the Republicans / Conservatives fought to uphold the “traditional” role of the Supreme Court. Roosevelt, not only sided with the Democrats against his own party, but went further than Bryan or any other Democrat in calling for the voter’s right to review and nullify Supreme Court Decisions that were unpopular. Needless to say, most of TR’s Republican compatriots were not happy with him, but that was not uncommon as he took on the trusts and monopolies, set up national parks, established Federal Regulation of Food, and other positions that out reformed the Democrats.
at the NSA collection of every American’s private e-mails, phone calls, and other digital communications. Referring to the NSA program of collecting information on all electronic communications of all American Citizens. See {636963} for more on the case.
Maxwell Sieben Baucus is an American politician and diplomat who served as a United States Senator from Montana from 1978 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a U.S. Senator for nearly 36 years, making him the longest-serving Senator in Montana history. President Barack Obama appointed Baucus to replace Gary Locke as the 11th U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a position he held from 2014 until 2017.
