A new historical analysis of administrative law exposes FDR’s suppression of civil liberties.
Given the accumulating evidence of corruption within the executive branch of the United States government, it is hard not to believe that we are living through the worst of times, and that the American dream of virtuous republican government is now doomed.
Certainly, this may be the case. But it is more probable (as our framers understood) that republics, since the days of Rome, tend gradually toward corruption. It’s a miracle, then, that any elements of American rule of law continue to operate. Still, considering that we have weathered significant corruption in the past, there is some hope that we will muddle through. David T. Beito’s review of the questionable legal conduct of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration offers just that notion.
FDR, of course, is a hero in the conventional progressive narrative. His fortitude and virtue are said to have saved American capitalism from collapse during the Great Depression and his conduct as a wartime leader is characterized as instrumental in preserving democracy (or something like it) in Western Europe. Revisionist economic historians have suggested that the New Deal, and the concomitant shifting of control to centralized agencies, prolonged distress in this country. Beito’s account of what amounted to American concentration camps, wartime censorship, mass surveillance, and misuse of executive branch agencies (such as the IRS) for partisan political purposes further impugns the claim that FDR was a man of virtue.
The incarceration of many thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry (known as Nisei or “the second generation”) during World War II is well-known. The unconstitutional nature of that move now seems to be conventional wisdom, although at the time the Supreme Court, in the infamous Korematsu case, upheld the internment camps as a wartime necessity. What was not generally known then, and what Beito makes clear now, is the opposition to that policy on the part of many executive branch officials. The opposition was successfully overridden in no small part by the personal prejudice President Roosevelt and the First Lady held against the Japanese race.
What makes this account even more valuable than the discussion of the detainment of the Nisei, however, is the exposure of FDR’s essentially venal and covert attempts to erode or cancel the constitutional protections of free speech and other elements of the Bill of Rights during his unprecedented four terms in office.
Senator Hugo L. Black, a staunch First Amendment proponent whom FDR appointed to the Supreme Court, comes off here during his congressional career as something less than libertarian. The book’s first chapter reviews Black’s efforts as chairman of the Senate committee ostensibly in charge of regulating lobbying. In reality, he engaged in efforts to intimidate and silence critics of FDR and the New Deal.
One of the signal failings of legal education in the United States for the last century-and-a-half is that we train lawyers to concentrate on the opinions of appellate courts. Students are made to appreciate the nuances of constitutional interpretation and the conflicting strands in the basic doctrines of contracts, torts, property, and civil procedure. Unfortunately, we don’t teach budding lawyers what happens in legislatures, the source of much of our law, since statutes and the conduct of statutorily created administrative agencies have much more effect on our lives than court decisions. Beito’s book, in other words, is a rare look at how the sausage is made. And it is not a pretty picture.
The Black committee’s activities were ostensibly justified by a purported need to legislate in the area of regulation of lobbyists. It claimed the power to examine millions of telegrams sent to and from activists, journalists, and lawyers, and, with the cooperation of the IRS, the tax returns of administration enemies (a latter-day tactic first employed at the instigation of FDR). Not only was this unprecedented governmental surveillance, but the Black committee, with the likely covert support (and probably aid) from the White House, enthusiastically smeared administration opponents with charges of racism and anti-Semitism. As Beito explains, these prejudicial failings could also be laid at the feet of FDR himself.
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The post The New Deal Paved the Way for Today’s Jan. 6 Prosecutions appeared first on LewRockwell.
The post <a href=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/07/no_author/the-new-deal-paved-the-way-for-todays-jan-6-prosecutions/ target=_blank >The New Deal Paved the Way for Today’s Jan. 6 Prosecutions</a> appeared first on Conservative Angle | Conservative Angle - Conservative News Clearing House
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Given the accumulating evidence of corruption within the executive branch of the United States government, it is hard not to believe that we are living through the worst of times, and that the American dream of virtuous republican government is now doomed.
Certainly, this may be the case. But it is more probable (as our framers understood) that republics, since the days of Rome, tend gradually toward corruption. It’s a miracle, then, that any elements of American rule of law continue to operate. Still, considering that we have weathered significant corruption in the past, there is some hope that we will muddle through. David T. Beito’s review of the questionable legal conduct of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration offers just that notion.
FDR, of course, is a hero in the conventional progressive narrative. His fortitude and virtue are said to have saved American capitalism from collapse during the Great Depression and his conduct as a wartime leader is characterized as instrumental in preserving democracy (or something like it) in Western Europe. Revisionist economic historians have suggested that the New Deal, and the concomitant shifting of control to centralized agencies, prolonged distress in this country. Beito’s account of what amounted to American concentration camps, wartime censorship, mass surveillance, and misuse of executive branch agencies (such as the IRS) for partisan political purposes further impugns the claim that FDR was a man of virtue.
The incarceration of many thousands of Americans of Japanese ancestry (known as Nisei or “the second generation”) during World War II is well-known. The unconstitutional nature of that move now seems to be conventional wisdom, although at the time the Supreme Court, in the infamous Korematsu case, upheld the internment camps as a wartime necessity. What was not generally known then, and what Beito makes clear now, is the opposition to that policy on the part of many executive branch officials. The opposition was successfully overridden in no small part by the personal prejudice President Roosevelt and the First Lady held against the Japanese race.
What makes this account even more valuable than the discussion of the detainment of the Nisei, however, is the exposure of FDR’s essentially venal and covert attempts to erode or cancel the constitutional protections of free speech and other elements of the Bill of Rights during his unprecedented four terms in office.
Senator Hugo L. Black, a staunch First Amendment proponent whom FDR appointed to the Supreme Court, comes off here during his congressional career as something less than libertarian. The book’s first chapter reviews Black’s efforts as chairman of the Senate committee ostensibly in charge of regulating lobbying. In reality, he engaged in efforts to intimidate and silence critics of FDR and the New Deal.
One of the signal failings of legal education in the United States for the last century-and-a-half is that we train lawyers to concentrate on the opinions of appellate courts. Students are made to appreciate the nuances of constitutional interpretation and the conflicting strands in the basic doctrines of contracts, torts, property, and civil procedure. Unfortunately, we don’t teach budding lawyers what happens in legislatures, the source of much of our law, since statutes and the conduct of statutorily created administrative agencies have much more effect on our lives than court decisions. Beito’s book, in other words, is a rare look at how the sausage is made. And it is not a pretty picture.
The Black committee’s activities were ostensibly justified by a purported need to legislate in the area of regulation of lobbyists. It claimed the power to examine millions of telegrams sent to and from activists, journalists, and lawyers, and, with the cooperation of the IRS, the tax returns of administration enemies (a latter-day tactic first employed at the instigation of FDR). Not only was this unprecedented governmental surveillance, but the Black committee, with the likely covert support (and probably aid) from the White House, enthusiastically smeared administration opponents with charges of racism and anti-Semitism. As Beito explains, these prejudicial failings could also be laid at the feet of FDR himself.
Read the Whole Article
The post The New Deal Paved the Way for Today’s Jan. 6 Prosecutions appeared first on LewRockwell.
The post <a href=https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/07/no_author/the-new-deal-paved-the-way-for-todays-jan-6-prosecutions/ target=_blank >The New Deal Paved the Way for Today’s Jan. 6 Prosecutions</a> appeared first on Conservative Angle | Conservative Angle - Conservative News Clearing House
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