The Opposition to the New Deal » Opposition From the Supreme Court, Republicans and Business

A New Deal under attack

Roosevelt won huge support in 1932 and again in 1936, but not everyone liked the New Deal. Some people said it went too far. They feared a government that spent too much, taxed too much and told people what to do. This lesson looks at the opposition from the Supreme Court, the Republicans and business.

The Supreme Court

Key terms:

• Supreme Court: the highest court in the USA, with nine judges called justices. They stay in the job for life.
• Unconstitutional: against the Constitution, the rules that set out what the government may and may not do. The Court can cancel a law it decides is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court was the biggest early obstacle. Most of its justices were older men who had been appointed before the New Deal, and many believed that the government should interfere as little as possible in business and the economy.

On 27 May 1935 the Court gave its verdict in Schechter Poultry Corporation v United States, soon called the 'sick chickens' case. The Schechter brothers ran a firm in Brooklyn, New York, that sold chickens. They were found guilty of breaking the NRA codes, including a charge about selling a sick chicken. They appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. All nine justices decided that the National Industrial Recovery Act was unconstitutional. They gave two main reasons:

• Congress had handed too much law-making power to the President and to industries, which wrote their own codes.
• The Schechters' business sold only inside New York State. The Constitution lets Congress control trade between states, but the Court said this was local trade, which was a matter for the state.

The NRA, the central part of the early New Deal, was swept away. In January 1936 the Court struck down the tax that paid for the farm subsidies of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, so the AAA was also cancelled in its existing form. Roosevelt was furious. He believed that old-fashioned judges were blocking what the voters had chosen.

Court-packing

After his landslide win in 1936, Roosevelt decided to act. In February 1937 he asked Congress for a law, the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill. For every justice over the age of 70 who had served ten years and did not retire, the President could appoint an extra justice, up to a total of 15. Roosevelt said this would help the elderly judges with their workload. Few were fooled. Six of the nine justices were aged 70 or more, so he could have added six new justices who would probably support the New Deal.

Key term:

• Court-packing: adding new judges to a court so that it will back your policies. This was the name opponents gave to the plan.

Critics came from both parties. They said Roosevelt was trying to take control of the Court and break the balance of power between the President, Congress and the judges. The Chief Justice, Charles Evans Hughes, wrote that the Court was not behind with its work. Roosevelt defended the plan in a radio speech on 9 March 1937.

The plan failed. The Senate did not pass it in the summer of 1937. By then the Court had started to uphold New Deal laws, such as the Wagner Act, and one justice had decided to retire. Roosevelt had lost the argument in public. People who had backed him in 1936 now thought he was reaching for too much power, and that made it harder for him to pass more reforms.

Republicans and business

The Republicans were the main opposition party. Some had supported action in 1933, but many soon turned against the New Deal. Their main reasons were:

• Cost: government spending was high and the government was borrowing money, so there was a deficit.
• Taxes: richer people and big firms paid more, for example under the tax law of 1935.
• Government power: they said Washington was interfering in local affairs and in people's lives, and that the New Deal was not the American way.

The Republicans chose Alf Landon, the Governor of Kansas, to stand against Roosevelt in 1936. Landon lost in a landslide and won only two states, Maine and Vermont.

Many business owners agreed. They disliked the rules of the NRA codes, the higher taxes, and above all the Wagner Act, which gave workers the legal right to join trade unions. Some feared that unions would push wages and costs up. Others said the government's spending and borrowing would harm the economy in the long run.

The Liberty League

Key term:

• Liberty League: the American Liberty League, a pressure group set up in 1934 by rich business people and conservative politicians to oppose the New Deal.

It was founded in August 1934. Its members included rich business people and some well-known Democrats, such as Al Smith, who had been the Democratic candidate for President in 1928. Members of the du Pont family helped to pay for it. The League said it defended the Constitution and private property. It produced pamphlets, speeches and radio broadcasts that attacked the New Deal as a threat to freedom. Its most famous speech was made by Smith in January 1936.

The League did not win many votes. Roosevelt's supporters said it was a club for millionaires who were protecting their own money, and he used its criticism to help him in the 1936 election. After his win the League faded away and closed in 1940.

Exam-style question

Study Sources A and B.

How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about threats to the Constitution? Explain your answer. [8 marks]

Recap

• The Supreme Court struck down the NRA in the 'sick chickens' case (1935) and the AAA tax (1936).
• Roosevelt's court-packing plan of 1937 tried to add up to six justices. It failed and cost him support.
• Republicans and business disliked the cost, the taxes, the power of government and the unions. The Liberty League spoke for rich opponents.