Source: http://www.sechistorical.org/museum/galleries/ctd/ctd_04a_minds_deference.php
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 16:25:18+00:00

Document:
Most likely, all of these factors influenced how the courts have decided securities cases. The personal papers of the justices provide insight, if not all the answers, to this mystery. In the case of the justices appointed during the New Deal, the majority of whom influenced the Supreme Court for decades, the power of judicial review often conflicted with the obligation to defer to the wisdom of the law-making bodies -- the Congress and the SEC -- in the field of securities law.
The role of courts to interpret law has long been a conflicted one. The idea of judicial review commands courts, especially those of last resort such as the Supreme Court, to be the final say on what the law is. Judges are expected to interpret and not make the law. Unlike the elected Congress, which makes federal law, judges are expected to be immune to popular majorities. A fine line exists between judicial interpretation and law making. Where the Congress has acted after conducting hearings as to the rational need for legislation, the philosophy of judicial deference requires courts to defer to the elected body except where there is a clear abuse of authority or where the rule violates the Constitution. After the New Deal, the SEC’s reputation as the respected expert on securities regulation gained tremendous credence as it made rules and testified before Congress. When confronted with securities rules developed by the SEC, justices who followed this philosophy were more likely to defer to Congress, and, to the extent the SEC was properly implementing Congressional policy, to the agency.
(42) Thompson and Sullivan, 1620-Appendix.
Memo for Justice William Brennan on SEC v. American Trailer Rentals Co.
Note from Justice Potter Stewart to Justice Thurgood Marshall in support of opinion in SEC v. National Securities, Inc.
Note from Justice John Harlan to Justice Thurgood Marshall on opinion in SEC v. National Securities, Inc.
Tally Sheet on Associate Justices Opinions in SEC v. National Securities, Inc.
Letter from Justice Thurgood Marshall to Henry Putzel, Jr., Reporter of Decisions on SEC v. National Securities, Inc.
Request from Justice Byron White to Justice Potter Stewart to join in opinion in National Association of Securities Dealers v. SEC, et al.

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