The Courts Were Always Bad. Now They’re Fundamentally Illegitimate.
For too long, progressives have accepted without question the legitimacy of the courts. That needs to change now.
The Supreme Court’s courtroom in 2009. Andrew Abernathy / Flickr
The confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett will end up putting not only issues such as abortion and LGBT rights at risk, but also the fundamental ability to advance progressive economic goals.
During the forty years of the Lochner era, spanning from the late nineteenth century through 1937, the Supreme Court advanced a deeply regressive view of the Constitution and the definition of freedom, striking down child labor laws, laws protecting organized labor, minimum wage laws, legislation regulating the coal industry, and other important protections. The least democratic branch of government gave itself sweeping powers to invalidate the work of progressive elected officials.
The end of this era only came after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s late-1930s court-packing threat.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.