Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-02-18


that have been most vigorously pushed
Swing Congress the power to over
ride the Supreme Courts veto. limit
| ing the Supreme Court veto to at
least two-thirds' vote, giving Con-
gress explicit power Thy amendment)
to regulate industry and agriculture.
He has evidently considered that these
measures would be at once too rad
ical, since they would directly curb
the judicial power or reestablish the
supremacy of Congress, and also too
dilatOry, since each one might-by
raising questions of cOnstitutionaity
have to be enacted finally as an
amendment. His present plan does
not touch the judicial power. and does
not change the relation of the court
to Congress. There can be no Ques-
ton of it's cOnstitutiOnality. 1t neith-
er seeks to curb the court nor (des-
pite the current impressiOn) pack it.
for if the judges retire there is no
increase in numbers. Rather it
purges the court by removing the in
firm, and therefore (by rough and
imperfect logic) the least fit.
Where the President got the plan
and why re should have sprung it
just now are not entirely clear. Paul
Ward points out in the Baltimore
Sun that a similar technique was pro-
posed in an 1869 bill in Grants Adj
ministration, but failed of passage.
The theory that he may have wished
to influence favorably the Wagner Act
cases seems untenable; If anything
tie proposal is calculated to freeze
tie judges into sheer immo: illty
through rage. There may be some
relation to the automobile strike and
tie power jam. as warnings to the
business community that the Presi-
dent has trump cards which he is
willing to play. But our own guess
and it is only guests that Mr..
Roosevelt wished to seize the Occa-
sion VIXEN public sentiment was ripe
for action of some sort but before the
movements for more radical curbs on
the court had grown too strong to be
stopped
There are basic objections to the
Presidents plan. 1t clearly does not
meet the issue of the judicial power
as an obstruction to democratic ac-
ton 1t does not go to the root of
our judicial oligarchy, but by reor-
ganizing it seeks rather to perpet-
uate it. There is danger that, es-
pecially after the number of fifteen
has been reached. a justice will wait
until he has a favorable President
before resigning, thus creating a
semi-hereditary caste. 1t can be used
as effectively by reactiOnary Presi-
dent as by liberal, and ultimately
it may produce simply benchful of
younger reactiOnaries-just as blind
and stubborn in their fiftieS as in
their seventies. Moreover. even lib
slip between the nomination of
judge and his decisions: be it etern-
ally remembered that McReynolds was
appointed by Wilson. And certainly
Mr. Roosevelt, judging from the
names most moOted now, cannot be
depended upon to choose more wisely
than his predecessors.
Nevertheless, it is TIE task of pro-
gressives to support the measure
with an Open-eyed awareness of it's
shortcomings. 1t will clear the block
age of New Deal legislation-at least
it will have delivered a blow to the
sanctity of the Supreme Court from
which the court will never wholly re-
cover. If the court can be defeated
once, it can be defeated again-and
that is a lesson from which tie peO-
pie will profit. While logically the
plan is leaky, pyschClOgically it is
sound. For talk as we may about
educating the common man on the
judicial power, the thing that sticks
in his mind is that the men who ex-
ercise it are old men and therefore
probably behind the times.
But for prcgressives to support this
measure does not mean that they
should stop there. Purging the SUI
preme Court does not preclude curb
ing it. movement for a cOnstitu-
tional amendment must be launched
now, so that when the rejuvenated
court again grows ossifed, we shall
not have to fight the same battle
all over again. But to refuse sup
port to Mr.. ROosevelt's measure and
to hold out for IAN amendment or
nothing" is now-whatever it may
have been before-playing into the
hands of the reactionaries. They will
inveigh against packing" the court,
grow historical about the supposed
blow to the independence of the Judi
ciary. and insist that the only method
of change is through an amendment.
Do not be trapped by them. The only
thing they value in an amendment is
the delay it would involve and their
hope finally of being able to beat it.
And without Roosevelt's support for
an amendment, that hope would be a
reality. With his support it is pos
sible. to push on the campaign for
constitutional reform, viewing the
present proposal merely as the open