The Supreme Court Though Mr. Roosevelt last week suffered the
most serious defeat of his Presidential career, the purpose of his plan to reform the Supreme Court, which the Senate rejected, appears to have been achieved. The emasculated version of his proposal prepared by the Senate Judiciary Committee realises his intention of expediting appeals to the' Supreme Court from decisions of District Courts invalidating Federal Statutes ; and the Supreme Court itself, since Mr. Roosevelt announced his plan, no longer finds Federal legislation on social insurance, the minimum wage, child labour and collec- tive bargaining unconstitutional. In addition, the retirement of Justice van Devanter is expected soon to be followed by others, and Mr. Roosevelt can fill their places with men of his own choosing. None the less the President has an- nounced his decision to pursue his original plan until his "objectives " have been achieved ; his decision, apparently so ill-judged, inevitably arouses doubts of what those " objec- tives " are. He may merely wish to keep his threat hanging over the Supreme Court until the whole of the New Deal has been realised. But he may feel also that the conflict with the Supreme Court, and the forces it represents, has still not been settled, that it is the crucial issue of his time, and that, despite his loss of prestige, he has enough support among the electorate to win his fight even against the com- bined opposition of the Judiciary, the Senate, the Republican and a large part of the Democratic Parties, the whole of the Press and the immense forces of American big business--a highly questionable assumption.
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