The Court at War
By
Cliff Sloan
Read by
Brian Troxell
Release:
09/19/2023
Runtime:
13h 41m
Unabridged
Quantity:
The story of FDR’s unsuccessful effort in the late 1930s to ‘pack’ the Supreme Court is well known. The Court at War tells the fascinating story of what happened later. As FDR filled numerous Court vacancies, and the country became engulfed in WWII, he ended up getting the supportive Court he had long wanted. Cliff Sloan’s deeply researched account of relations between the ‘War Court’ and FDR during the early 1940s—complete with insightful portraits of the justices—demonstrates we still live in a legal world shaped by the events of those momentous years.
Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian
The inside story of how one president forever altered the most powerful legal institution in the country—with consequences that endure today
By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices—the most by any president except George Washington—and handpicked the chief justice.
But the wartime Roosevelt Court had two faces. One was bold and progressive, the other supine and abject, cowed by the charisma of the revered president.
The Court at War explores this pivotal period. It provides a cast of unforgettable characters in the justices—from the mercurial, Vienna-born intellectual Felix Frankfurter to the Alabama populist Hugo Black; from the western prodigy William O. Douglas, FDR’s initial pick to be his running mate in 1944, to Roosevelt’s former attorney general and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson.
The justices’ shameless capitulation and unwillingness to cross their beloved president highlight the dangers of an unseemly closeness between Supreme Court justices and their political patrons. But the FDR Court’s finest moments also provided a robust defense of individual rights, rights the current Court has put in jeopardy. Sloan’s intimate portrait is a vivid, instructive tale for modern times.
By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices—the most by any president except George Washington—and handpicked the chief justice.
But the wartime Roosevelt Court had two faces. One was bold and progressive, the other supine and abject, cowed by the charisma of the revered president.
The Court at War explores this pivotal period. It provides a cast of unforgettable characters in the justices—from the mercurial, Vienna-born intellectual Felix Frankfurter to the Alabama populist Hugo Black; from the western prodigy William O. Douglas, FDR’s initial pick to be his running mate in 1944, to Roosevelt’s former attorney general and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson.
The justices’ shameless capitulation and unwillingness to cross their beloved president highlight the dangers of an unseemly closeness between Supreme Court justices and their political patrons. But the FDR Court’s finest moments also provided a robust defense of individual rights, rights the current Court has put in jeopardy. Sloan’s intimate portrait is a vivid, instructive tale for modern times.
Release:
2023-09-19
Runtime:
13h 41m
Format:
audio
Weight:
0.0 lb
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781668632895
Publisher:
Hachette Book Group
Praise