How Janice Rogers Brown Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Great Depression
How Janice Rogers Brown Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Great Depression
Lochner v. New York stands with Dred Scott v. Sandford as one of the most reviled Supreme Court decisions in the nation’s history. Liberals and conservatives alike have denounced it. Robert Bork called it an abomination. FDR accused the Lochner Court of mak[ing] our democracy impotent.
So what was this case that is too radical even for the likes of Judge Bork? Lochner held that laws such as minimum wage, maximum hour, and child labor laws, as well as laws regarding peaceful labor activities and collective bargaining, were unconstitutional for violating the so-called “freedom to contract.”. President Roosevelt blamed Lochner as one of the causes of the Great Depression, and he chastised the Court for striking down laws designed to jump-start the economy out of the Great Depression.
In a speech to the right-wing Federalist Society, Janice Rogers Brown, a Bush nominee for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, praised Lochner as consistent with her radical view of the Constitution:
In his famous, all too famous, dissent in Lochner, Justice Holmes wrote that the “constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the State or of laissez faire.” Yes, one of the greatest (certainly one of the most quotable) jurists this nation has ever produced; but in this case, he was simply wrong. That Lochner dissent has troubled me — has annoyed me — for a long time and finally I understand why. It’s because the framers did draft the Constitution with a surrounding sense of a particular polity in mind.
The Senate plans to vote on Justice Brown as early as this week.
– Ian Millhiser
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It’s pretty bad that a bunch of supposedly liberal Senators agreed that Rogers Brown should go through. If she isn’t an extreme circumstance, I don’t know who is…
June 6th, 2005 at 4:38 pmShe’s not on the SCOTUS yet. Only the Court of Appeals.
June 6th, 2005 at 4:42 pmI don’t think JRB ever endorsed Lochner. She disagreed with one item written by a dissenting justice. That item was that the constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory.
JRB feels that the constitution WAS intended to embody some particular economic theory.
June 6th, 2005 at 4:53 pmBoy, that compromise to save the fillibuster sure reflects the point of why the fillibuster was threatened to be used in the first place. Owen was/is bad enough.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:01 pmTony! You heretic! Don’t elaborate. It frightens me what you might say.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:06 pmTony, I linked to the speech where Brown says just which economic theory she espouses.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:19 pmIan, she never praises the actual Lochner decision in the speech.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:34 pmTony,
I’m not going to get in an argument with you about what she does or does not say. I have confidence that Think Progress’ readers can read Justice Brown’s words and come to their own conclusions about what she does or does not think about Lochner.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:41 pmMs Brown is one of the major reasons I was so upset by the “compromise” over the nuclear option. We Democrats would be much farther ahead if we had stuck to our guns and let the Republicans violate the Constitution. All we did was save them from themselves. Now Ms Brown will be confirmed and will be one step closer to being on the US Supreme Court.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:42 pmAfter reading her speech, I really think they should have some kind of psyche work-up on candidates for the bench, like they require in policing, such as it is. Obviously, it’s never perfect, some problematic candidates slip through the net, (pun intended).
June 6th, 2005 at 5:52 pmTony,
I will argue with you. I reponded to your
SJS-
I just want freedom. Critique that.
Go and have a look.
June 6th, 2005 at 6:32 pmThe worst thing is she makes me feel bad about myself. When I’m feeling good i like to keep it that way, it’s sort of like an accomplishment, or at least a substitute for accomplishment. They are all bad people and I am a good people. Everything they do is bad. That’s all you really need to know.
June 6th, 2005 at 6:48 pma
June 6th, 2005 at 7:06 pms
June 6th, 2005 at 7:08 pmThe entire post-New Deal concept of federal regulatory power and the very nature of the federal-state relationship is at risk with Janice Rogers Browns and the “Constitution in Exile” crowd.
Their plan is to roll back the clock to a narrow, pre-Lochner notion of the Commerce Clause. The Commerce Clause will reemerge as a bludgeon against workers’ rights, environmental laws and health and safety regulations.
For more background, see:
“Sharpening Their Clause: The Coming Bush Judges.”
June 6th, 2005 at 7:19 pmI wasn’t aware of the CRC. Glad have found the CRC site. Thanks Ian.
http://www.communityrights.org/
and the Redifining Federalism project sounds like the kind of progress we need going into 2006 and 2008.
http://www.redefiningfederalism.org/
Just in case the rest of you missed it.
June 6th, 2005 at 7:30 pmHave I given away any closely guarded secrets?
Why does Jean-Francois Revel hate France so much?
June 6th, 2005 at 7:32 pmWhy does dumbya hate America so much that he keeps naming raving extremists for judges?
June 7th, 2005 at 10:25 amWhy does Buttshot hate patriotic political dissent so much?
June 7th, 2005 at 11:13 amLast night C-span ran Barbara Boxer’s excellent senate presentation outlining Brown’s legacy of extremist position – catch the re-run if you can.
http://www.hairytruth.blogspot.com
June 7th, 2005 at 11:14 amHey Buckshot:
Off topic, but following up a prior exchange, I thought you’d be real interested in the following, since you keep telling me how poorly Scandinavian countries are doing economically:
Nordic Countries Lead the Way in the World Economic Forum’s 2004 Competitiveness Rankings
13 October 2004
“Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world and tops the rankings for the second consecutive year in The Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005, released today by the World Economic Forum. The United States is in second position, followed by Sweden, Taiwan, Denmark and Norway, consecutively.
“The Nordic countries are characterized by excellent macroeconomic management overall – they are all running budget surpluses – they have extremely low levels of corruption, with their firms operating in a legal environment in which there is widespread respect for contracts and the rule of law, and their private sectors are on the forefront of technological innovation.”
And this is from a group that’s about as pro-business as you can get.
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