Advocates and Enemies of Social Welfare

• Author: Jack Fruchtman
• Profession: Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland
• Pages: 147-153

American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, First Edition. Jack Fruchtman.

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

10

Advocates and Enemies of Social

Welfare

The most significant aspect of the welfare state republic was the

increase in federal intervention in the economy. Beginning with the

“first 100 days” of his presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (F.D.R.)

submitted several programs to Congress to stimulate the nation’s

emergence from the Great Depression. Known collectively as the

New Deal, these programs included money and banking regulations,

laws setting minimum wages and maximum hours, public works,

housing development, social security for retirees, conservation of

natural resources, and farm subsidies. Many conservatives challenged

these programs as an unconstitutional federal interference in the free

market. On the Supreme Court, the “four horsemen” – Justices

Sutherland, McReynolds, Van Devanter, and Butler – composed the

core opposition when these programs were challenged. In 1935, the

four horsemen attracted the vote of either Chief Justice Charles

Evans Hughes (1930–1941) or Justice Owen Roberts to overturn all

or part of six of eight major new programs, such as pension programs,

wage and hour laws, and price controls. Left in doubt was the

constitutionality of the National Labor Relations, or the Wagner Act,

and the Social Security Acts.

Roosevelt’s re‐election in November 1936 outpaced his first

performance. He defeated Alfred Landon by an astounding 523 votes to

8. Fearing that the Court would overturn his remaining New Deal

programs, 54 days after his second inauguration on January 20, 1937, he