In Support of FDR's Court-packing Plan

Performed by Senator Robert M. LaFollette (R-WI)
Recorded February 13, 1937

A dutiful and historic example is what happened to the minimum wage legislation. It has been before the Supreme Court three times. On the basis of the recorded votes of the individual justices, there have been seven who have voted in favor of its constitutionality, and six against it. Yet the legislation was invalidated, simply because a bare majority of the particular set of justices who happen to be on the court at the time was opposed to that kind of legislation. Congress wanted it, the people wanted it. Seven out of thirteen justices wanted it, but the other six did not, so the law went into the ash can. If that is not government by men, I would like to know what it is. Even the Republican Party refused to defend such a flagrant act of judicial usurpation. Ten days after the Supreme Court's decision arbitrarily brushing aside the New York Minimum Wage Act For Women, the Republican Party solemnly pledged itself to support state minimum wage legislation for women, and recorded its belief that such legislation is within the Constitution as it now stands. This is but one more public recognition of the fact that our Constitution is what the justices choose to make it.