Majority Rule and the Judiciary An Examination of Current Proposals..

2008. ISBN-13: 9781584777793; ISBN-10: 1584777796. Progressive-Era Essay on the Relation Between Legislatures and Courts Ransom William L. Majority Rule and the Judiciary: An Examination of Current Proposals for Constitutional Change Affecting the Relation of Courts to Legislation. With an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. xx, 183 pp. Reprinted 2008 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN-13: 9781584777793. ISBN-10: 1584777796. Hardcover. New. $34.95 * Ransom's book is grounded in the Progressive movement's belief that courts are a barrier to positive social change. In order to break this barrier he argues for the application of the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution, which is also incorporated in several state constitutions, to all decisions by state courts affecting the general welfare of citizens, such as labor and consumer protection. By granting enforcement power to legislatures, the instrument of "majority rule," reforms within a state may be secured against intervention by its judiciary. Interesting for its insights into legislative-judicial relations during the early 1900s, it rehearses several points that would recur in Franklin Roosevelt's battles with the U.S. Supreme Court over parts of the New Deal.