Description

When the Constitution was written in 1787, the Founders viewed the U.S. Supreme Court as the weakest branch of government. Today, the Court’s decisions influence every aspect of our Nation’s life. This series of classes will explore the Court’s evolution and the judicial titans responsible for it. (Sign up for one, two or all three sessions in this series. See class #810 for Part 1 and class #832 for Part 3.)

This session will discuss how during the Gilded Age the Court, packed with railroad and other corporate lawyers, protected property rights of big corporations and rejected claims of racial minorities, and workers. The intellectual and moral leadership came from prescient dissents from Justices Harlan and Holmes. In the 1930s the Court acquired a new home of its own, began to accept New Deal laws regulating businesses, and survived FDR’s effort to undermine its independence by packing the court with additional appointees. In 1954 the Court issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education under the new leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren. The decision has perhaps had the most impact of all Court decisions on the average American, but it tested anew the Court’s ability to ensure acceptance of its decisions.