THE COLD WAR AND THE COURT: AFFECTS OF IDEOLOGICAL RIVALS ON SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

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THE COLD WAR AND THE COURT:

AFFECTS OF IDEOLOGICAL RIVALS ON SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

        The rise in the popularity of communism in the middle of the 20th century posed a serious threat to the liberal democratic ideology in America.  Communists critiqued capitalist nations, like the United States, because of the economic stratification and class oppression within their borders.  The American government, in order to ensure its prosperity, needed to portray the United States as a stable, just and equal society despite domestic and economic tension America that plagued the nation at the time.  In an effort to look united and prosperous in light of the rise of competing ideologies, particularly communism, during the 20th century, the Supreme Court of the United States of America allowed legislation that exceeded the Constitutional powers granted to Congress and the executive, particularly in regards to civil rights and education; moreover, this judicial activism waned as the ideological threat of the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s.

        During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Supreme Court continually struck down government legislation that failed to rigidly adhere to the Constitution, particularly in the case of civil rights.  The Court, for example, decided in 1883 that the Fourteenth Amendment failed to encompass private acts of discrimination but only state action that is discriminatory, and therefore, Congress possesses no right to enact laws banning private bigotry (Mannino 9/30).  In his opinion Justice Bradley wrote, “…there must be some stage in the progress of [the emancipated slave’s] elevation when he takes the rank of a mere citizen, and ceases to be the special favorite of the [laws].”  (Sullivan 868) Furthermore, in Bradwell vs. Illinois (1873), the Court ruled against women’s rights by stating that the right to practice law was not protected by the immunities clause and, therefore, a State could ban women lawyers (Mannino 10/21) Finally, in the case that defined the era, the Lochner vs. New York (1906) decision concluded that improving immigrant living conditions could not be accomplished indirectly by using the state’s police power as justification (198 U.S. 45, 25 S.Ct. 539. 499 L.Ed.2d 937) In the late 1800s and early 20th century, the Court continually struck down civil rights legislation because it felt the government unfairly extended its constitutional powers for ends beyond the scope of its means.       

The Court denied these civil rights expansions because the American system of government and economics faced few ideological challenges to its domestic autonomy.  Victorious after the WWI campaign and left standing as the only significant super-power in the world, the United States’ liberal democratic ideology remained strong. Communist Soviet Union, freshly formed in 1922, attempted to cope with weakness as Lenin consolidated his power after the Bolshevik Revolution and, thus, posed no serious threat to American sovereignty (Merriman 1124) Likewise, the other ideological rival, fascism, failed to gain significant favor as illustrated by the Nazis’ minor electoral gains of three percent in the 1928 German national elections (Merriman 1184) In light of the weakness of other ideologies, the American government need not portray itself as a stable, and equality driven nation.  As a result, the United States maintained domestic policies consistent with its Liberal constitution not its Liberal ideals.

The 1930s, however, witnessed a rise in the popularity of anti-democratic ideologies and the prosperity of the states that espoused such doctrines.  Consequently, in an effort to appear as a more just nation, the Court released its tight hold on the expansion of federal power.  Fascism in the 1930s, for example, gained great popularity, particularly in Germany and Italy, and, therefore, posed a threat to America’s democratic ideology.  The rapid ascension of Hitler to power illustrates the appeal of fascism as he rose from convict to Chancellor in a mere eight years (Merriman 1209) Communism too gained favor as the Stalin’s consolidation power over Trotsky legitimized the Soviet Union, the chief proponent of the workers movement (Merriman 1131) Furthermore, the American stock market crash in October of 1929 left the American economy in shambles and vulnerable to criticism on the stability of capitalism and effectiveness democracy to react to such economic shocks.  In light of this, the American government, led by President Roosevelt, needed to convince its citizens and the world that Liberal democracy worked as a just system of government and economics.  

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Roosevelt’s realization of the peril of American democracy during the rise of communism and fascism led him to pressure the Supreme Court to lessen its strict hold on federal government.  Decisions like that of Civil Rights Case and the Schechter Case (1935), in which the Court concluded that National Recovery Act of 1933 exceeded the powers delegated to federal government, could no longer stand if America was to remain an economic super-power and “Leader of the Free World.”  Roosevelt began to attack the Court in the public arena, making the Justices seem old and out-dated with an inability to tackle ...

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