Democratic Justice, page 117
257
Hiss: FF to LDB, 7/21/1935, FFLC, Box 29.
257
Horsky: Augustus Hand to FF, 8/22/1935, SFRP, FF Corr. Addendum, Folder 1.
257
Wyzanski: CEW to FF, 10/26/1935, FFLC, Box, 149; FF to CEW, 12/25/1935, id., Box 113.
257
“a superb” & “The Court”: FF to SFR, 11/27/1935, at 1, 3, SFRP, FF Corr. Addendum, Folder 1.
257
fainted: NYT, 12/11/1935, at 1, 9.
257
“purely local”: United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1, 61, 64 (1936).
258
“wisdom”: Id. at 78–79 (Stone, J., dissenting).
258
“that Jesus”: FF to SFR, 1/10/1936, at 1, SFRP, FF Corr. Addendum, Folder 1.
258
4:30 p.m.: FDR Day to Day, 1/12/1936.
258
draft message: FF to FDR, 1/17/1936, R&FF, 312–13.
258
“series”: Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288, 346–48 (1936) (Brandeis, J., concurring).
258
“has lost” & “judgment” & “no respect”: FF to MDF, 4/22/1936, at 2–4, FFLC, Box 15.
258
“I wish”: FF to MDF, 2/17/1937, at 3, id.
259
“purely”: Carter v. Carter Coal, 298 U.S. 238, 279–83, 304 (1936).
259
“very fit” & Wheeler & reception: FF to MDF, 5/20/1935, at 1–4, FFLC, Box 14. See HID, 5/22/1935, HI, Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: The First Thousand Days, 1933–1936, at 602; FDR Day by Day, 5/20/1936.
259
New York minimum-wage law: Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo, 298 U.S. 587, 592–93, 617 (1936).
259
differentiated: Id. at 619–27 (Hughes, C.J., dissenting).
259
Adkins had been overruled: Id. at 634–36 (Stone, J., dissenting). See FF to HFS, 6/5/1936, HFSP, Box 13.
259
private lunch: FDR Day by Day, 6/4/1936.
260
“call”: FF to FDR, 6/13/1936, R&FF, at 344–45.
260
“principles” & “No Man’s” & “the new” & “a dangerous”: FF Draft, n.d., id. at 353–54.
260
campaign: HID, 5/22/1936, HI, Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: The First Thousand Days, 1933–1936, at 602.
260
“This generation”: FDR, 1936 Nomination Speech, 6/27/1936, at 11, FDRL, MSF, Box 26, File 879B.
260
British press: FF to FDR, 7/11/1936, R&FF, 345–46.
260
“something”: ALL to FDR, 2/20/1936, R&FF, 322. See FDR to FF, 2/24/1936, id. at 323.
261
“a lesson”: FF to FDR, 2/26/1936 tel., id.
261
“Mr. Roosevelt” & “try”: FF, Memorandum, n.d., id.
261
“the impertinent”: FF to FDR, 2/29/1936, id. at 324 (containing draft). See FF to FDR, 3/4/1936, id. at 324–25; FDR to ALL, 3/6/1/936, id. at 325; ALL to FDR, 4/14/1936, id. at 326.
261
“temper”: FDR to FF, 4/16/1936, id. See FF to FDR, 4/19/1936, id.; FDR to FF, 4/29/1936, id. at 326–27; FDR to ALL, 4/29/1936, id. at 327.
261
University of Heidelberg: FF to GC, 3/3/1936, FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 19, Page 817.
261
drafted a preliminary: Tercentenary Speech, 9/18/1936, R&FF, at 327–30. See FDRL, MSF, Box 27, No. 921.
261
“members”: R&FF, 330.
261
Learned Hand showed: LH to Lessing Rosenthal, 6/5/1936, id. at 331.
261
“Now”: BG, 9/19/1936, at 1, 6, 8. See FF to MLH, 9/18/1936 tel., R&FF, 355.
261–262
“celebrated” & “wise sauciness” & “great triumph”: FF to FDR, 9/19/1936 tel., R&FF, 356. See FDR to FF, 9/22/1936, id.; MDF to FDR, 9/27/1936, id.
262
“tool” & “The most powerful”: R&FF, 357–58 (enclosing FF to friend, 10/25/1936). See WAW to FF, 10/31/1936, id. at 359–60.
262
“an old-fashioned” & “the conflict”: FF to Arthur Hays Sulzberger, 10/1/1936, id. at 359.
262
“you have”: FF to FDR, Sunday before Election, id. at 361.
262
Ben Cohen: BVC to FF, 11/23/1936, BVCP, Box 7.
262
“canvassing”: FF to SFR, 12/14/1936, FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 2, Page 765.
262
put on hold: BVC to FF, 1/6/1937, BVCP, Box 7 (containing FF’s handwritten comments on amendments). See SFR to FF, 12/17/1936, FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 2, Page 766 & FF to SFR, 12/28/1936, at 1–2, SFRP, FF Corr. Addenda, Folder 1 (commenting on a possible amendment allowing Congress to overrule a Supreme Court decision by a two-thirds vote of both houses).
263
“indispensable” & “petty”: FF, The Commerce Clause Under Marshall, Taney, and Waite, unnumbered & 114 (1937).
263
Thayer: FF to FDR, n.d., R&FF, 367.
263
“To F.D.R.”: id. at 366.
CHAPTER 18: AN AWFUL SHOCK
264
“drenched” & “will be”: FF to FDR, 1/21/1937, R&FF, 379–80.
264
“one-third”: FDR, Second Inaugural Address, 1/20/1937, at 4, 9, FDRL, MSF, Box 31, No. 1030.
264
“Very confidentially”: FDR to FF, 1/15/1937, R&FF, 376.
265
“Are you trying”: FF to FDR, 1/18/1937, id. at 378.
265
Corcoran and Cohen: TGC Int. with Harry Hopkins, 4/3/1939, at 2–3 (in dark until eve of announcement).
265
after the election: HSCD, 11/15/1936, at 2–3 & 12/23/1936 & 12/24/1936, HSCP, Reel 1.
265
late January & Richberg & Rosenman: HSCD, 1/30/1927, at 1–2 & 1/31/1927 & 2/2/1937 & 2/3/1937, at 1–2, & 2/4/1937, id., Reel 2.
265
revealing the bill & brainchild: HSCD, 2/5/1937, at 1–3, id.; Raymond Clapper Diary, 1/20/1937, Clapper Papers, Box 8 (Richberg tipped off Clapper) & 2/8/1937, at 3, id. (Cummings took lead).
265
“court-packing”: FDR, “Message to Congress – Judicial Reorganization,” 2/5/1937, FDRL, MSF, Box 31, No. 1033; Jeff Shesol, Supreme Power (2010); Barry Cushman, Rethinking the New Deal Court (1998); William E. Leuchtenburg, The Supreme Court Reborn (1995); Joseph Alsop & Turner Catledge, The 168 Days (1938).
265–266
“And now” & “that means” & “it was clear” & “deep faith”: FF to FDR, 2/7/1937, R&FF, 380–81.
266
“There is”: FF, “Supreme Court of the United States,” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 14, at 478 (1934).
266
rejected calls: MRC, “Fallacies about the Court,” The Nation, 7/10/1935, at 39; FF to MRC, 6/10/1936, at 2, MRCP, Box 5, Folder 12; MRC to FF, 10/29/1936, at 1, id., Folder 11.
266
“I am” & “process” & “It is” & “unconstitutional” & “Do you”: FDR to FF, 2/9/1937, R&FF, 381–82.
266
“very difficult”: FF to FDR, 2/15/1937, id. at 382–83.
266
“oath”: R&FF, 372 (revealing vow of silence yet private assistance to FDR to authorized biographer Max Freedman). See AMB to PAF, 1/28/1969, PAFP, Box 4, Folder 4-7 (arguing Freedman misunderstood “F.F.’s delicate position”); AMB Int. with Lash, 9/12/1974, at 3 (describing FF’s “loyalty to Captain” as paramount and recalling FF’s remark that FDR was not going to nominate a third Jew to the Court).
267
Stevens & Hart & Rosenwald & Powell & Winship & Hill & “Damn this”: FF to MDF, 2/13/1937, at 2–7, FFLC, Box 15.
267
“strengthen” & “I have”: FF to GC, 3/6/1937, at 2–3, FFLC, Box 34.
267
“lawless”: FF to CCB, 3/6/1937, id.
267
“lived up”: FF to CCB, 3/9/1937, at 1, id.
267
New York lawyers: FF to CCB, 3/13/1937, id. See CCB to FF, 3/14/1937, id.; FF to CCB, 3/16/1937, id.; GC to FF, 3/18/1937, at 2, id.; FF to GC, 3/19/1937, id.; FF to CCB, 4/3/1937, id.
268
“cheap” & “I know”: MDF to FF, 2/14/1937, at 9–10, FFLC, Box 15.
268
“have been more” & “I should have” & “My bottom”: FF to MDF, 2/1937, at 2–7, id.
268
“We here”: FF to MDF, 2/17/1937, at 2–6, id.
268
“the real”: FF to FDR, 2/18/1937, R&FF, 383–84.
268–269
“has distorted” & “climax” & “personal economic” & “to protect” & “endure” & “to be adapted” & “embody a particular”: FF, Memorandum, id. at 384–87 (quoting McCulloch & Lochner).
269
unpublished letter: FDR to FF, 2/18/1937, R&FF, 387–89 (enclosing Stuart Chase, 2/15/1937, letter to New York Times).
269
“take” & “the long” & “this major”: FF to FDR, 2/23/1937, id. at 389–90.
269
“have ceased”: FF to MDF, 3/6/1937, at 4–5, FFLC, Box 15.
269
“My formula”: FF to LH, 2/23/1937, id., Box 64.
269
nationally broadcast: FDR, Democratic Victory Dinner, 3/4/1937, FDRL, MSF, Box 32, Folder 1040A.
269
“[t]he country”: FF to FDR, 3/6/1937, at 1–4, TGCP, Box 210. This letter is not in their published correspondence.
270
“Two” & “acting” & “has improperly” & “we must” & “an appeal” & “independent” & “new” & “pack” & “Justices”: FDR, Fireside Chat, 3/9/1937, at 4–5, 8, 10–11, 13, 15–16, FDRL, MSF, Box 32, No. 1041A.
270
“false sanctity” & “relaxed”: FF to MDF, 3/11/1937, at 3–5, FFLC, Box 15.
270
formidable adversary: BKW, Yankee from The West, 294–318 (1962); Marc C. Johnson, Political Hell-Raiser, 182–214 (2019); ML, Memorandum re: BKW’s Relationship with FDR, 10/24/1941, at 1–2, MLP, Box 5, Folder 51; FF to MDF, 3/11/1937, at 4–5; TGC, “Rendezvous with Democracy, Pack C/21–25, TGCP, Box 586.
271
“crashed” & hallway: TGC to Hopkins, 4/3/1939, at 3.
271
“Tell your” & “I’m sorry”: TGC, “Rendezvous with Democracy,” Pack C/14–17. See SIR, Working with Roosevelt, 156 (1952); Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 89–90 (1948) (based on 1939 Hopkins memorandum); MDF to FF, 2/11/1937, at 10, FFLC, Box 15.
271
“Whom did”: LDB to FF, 2/5/1937, HBHS, at 593.
271
He learned: LDB to FF, 2/15/1937, FFLC, Box 28. Scholars believe FF destroyed many of his letters to LDB in the early 1940s. Introduction, HBHS, 10 & 13 n.21.
271
Brandeis’s wife: Elizabeth Wheeler Colman, Mrs. Wheeler Goes to Washington, 165–66 (1989).
272
“Well” & “The baby”: BKW, Yankee from The West, 328–29. On Hughes’s role, see BKW, “My Years with Roosevelt,” in As We Saw the Thirties, 203–5 (Rita James Simon, ed. 1967); Memorandum of Hughes’s Conversation with Senator William H. King, 3/19/1927, CEHP, Reel 5; Memorandum of Hughes’s Conversation with Senator Burton K. Wheeler, 3/19/1927, id.; CEH Autobiographical Notes, Chief Justice, 1930–1941, at 20–21, CEHP, Reel 140; Merlo J. Pusey, Charles Evans Hughes, Vol. 2, 755–56 (1951); CEH, The Autobiographical Notes of Charles Evans Hughes, 305 (David J. Danelski & Joseph S. Tulchin, eds. 1973); Marquis Childs, Witness to Power, 34–35 (1975); PAF, “Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice,” 81 Harv. L. Rev. 4, 26–29 (1967); Richard D. Friedman, “Chief Justice Hughes’ Letter on Court-Packing,” Journal of Supreme Court History 1 (1997): 76–86; Alsop & Catledge, The 168 Days, 124–27; Shesol, Supreme Power, 392–97.
272
“fully abreast”: CEH to BKW, 3/21/1937, at 1, BKWP-MSU, Box 8, Folder 16 & Hearings on S. 1392 before the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 75th Cong., 1st Sess., “A Bill to Reorganize the Judicial Branch of the Government,” Pt. 3, 3/22-25/1937, at 487–92.
272
“they are”: BKW to PAF, 12/21/1962, BKWP-MSU, Box 1, Folder 1:6 & John L. Wheeler to Edward K. Wheeler, 12/9/1962, id. & PAF, “Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice,” 81 Harv. L. Rev. at 27. Cf. ML, Memorandum, 7/15/1937, at 4, FFLC, Box 184 (quoting CEH as saying “that’s the court”).
272
“phony” & disingenuous & “a characteristic” & “ridiculous” & “putting” & “the fear”: FF, Memorandum, 3/21/1937, at 1–4, FFLC, Box 28 (handwritten notation by FF re: unsent). FF confirmed CEH’s lie about his inability to reach the other justices. FF to HFS, 4/8/1937, HFSP, Box 13; HFS to FF, 4/8/1937, id.
273
“freedom”: West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379, 389, 391, 400 (1937). See Helen J. Knowles, Making Minimum Wage (2021).
273
“the switch”: John Q. Barrett, “Attribution Time: Cal Tinney’s Quip, ‘A Switch in Time’ll Save Nine,’ ” 73 Okla. L. Rev. 229 (2021).
273
“Overruling”: LDB to FF, 3/29/1937, HBHS, at 594.
273
“one of life’s” & “manner” & “confidence” & “a terrible” & “a shameless”: FF to LDB, 3/31/1937, at 1–2, FFLC, Box 28.
274
“a teacher” & “cynicism” & “Let Hughes” & “enduring” & “intervening” & “his disingenuous” & “Not even”: Id. at 2–3. See FF to HFS, 3/30/1937, at 1–2, HFSP, Box 13 (similar comments); HFS to FF, 4/2/1937, id. (describing minimum-wage cases as “a sad chapter in our judicial history”).
274
“with” & “pretended” & “That Brandeis”: FF to FDR, 3/30/1937, R&FF, 392.
274
“I reserve”: LDB to FF, 4/5/1937, HBHS, at 595.
274
not to discuss: R&FF, 396.
274
came to regret: FF to Thomas Reed Powell, 8/14/1946, at 4, Powell Papers, Box B, Folder B24 (“I now know from certain contemporaneous records about Roberts’ two votes, on Minimum Wage. The facts would call for a much more complicated statement than his silence in the two cases naturally indicated.”); FF, “Mr. Justice Roberts,” 104 U. Pa. L. Rev. 311, 313–15 (1955) (quoting memorandum that OJR gave to FF on November 9, 1945). See Michael Ariens, “A Thrice-Told Tale, or Felix the Cat,” 107 Harv. L. Rev. 620 (1994) (contending memorandum was a forgery); Richard D. Friedman, “A Reaffirmation: The Authenticity of the Roberts Memorandum, or Felix the Non-Forger,” 142 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1985 (1994) (rebutting forgery claim).
275
“close” & “not controlling”: NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 38, 41, 43 (1937).
275
“After today”: FF to FDR, 4/12/1937 tel., R&FF, 397. See id. at 397–98 (distrusting Hughes’s motives).
275
“You are”: FF to FDR, 4/5/1937, R&FF, 396–97 (FF handwritten note about 4/20 dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 9:50 p.m.).
275
“flew” & “my long”: FF to FDR, 4/21/1937, id. at 398. See FDR Day by Day, 4/20/1937 (FF 5:30 p.m. to 12:55 a.m.).
275
“I have”: FF to CCB, 4/29/1937, at 1, FFLC, Box 34. See FF to CCB, 7/22/1937, at 1, id.
276
instrumental role: Hughes Autobiographical Notes, Chief Justiceship, 1930–1941, at 16–18, CEHP, Reel 140; LDB to FF, 5/26/1937, HBHS, 597.
276
halved the salaries: Judge Glock, “Unpacking the Supreme Court,” Journal of American History 106, no. 1 (June 2019): 47–71.
276
first choice: WP, 5/23/1937, at B1.
276
Social Security Act: Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548 (1937).
276
“pretty” & “political”: FF to HFS, 5/25/1937, at 2, HFSP, Box 13.
276
“a needless”: Adverse Report, Reorganization of the Federal Judiciary, 6/14/1937, at 23.
276
a compromise: Joseph B. Keenan to HSC, 7/19/1937 2:30 p.m., HSCP, Box 199.
277
last-ditch effort: ML, Memorandum re: BKW’s Relationship with FDR, 10/24/1941, at 1–2; ML, Memorandum, 8/3/1937, FFLC, Box 184.
277
died with Robinson: HSCD, 7/14/1937, HSCP, Reel 2; HSCD, 8/1/1937, at 1–2, id.
277
“In the Court fight” & “unwise” & “candor”: FF to LDB, 7/15/1937, FFLC, Box 28 (includes handwritten note).
277
“It will clarify”: FF to FDR, 8/9/1937, at 1–5, TGCP, Box 210. This letter also is not in the FF-FDR published correspondence.
277
Cummings pared: HSCD, 8/2/1937, at 1–3; “Memorandum in re Supreme Court,” 8/3/1937, FDRL, PSF, Box 166; HSC to FDR, 8/9/1937, id., Box 165.
278
Roosevelt conferred: HSCD, 8/11/1937, at 1–3; Alsop and Catledge, The 168 Days, 296–307.
