Abstract

A Question of Fundamentals

The resolutions adopted by the Union League Club in New York, condemning the recall of judges and presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan of "reviewing at the polls, the decisions of the highest courts upon constitutional questions," are couched in strong language. A favorite method of belittling the, opposition to a radical proposal like that launched by Roosevelt is to charge the objectors with extravagance of language. There is in Roosevelt's proposal, a certain wrongheadedness which would make its adoption peculiarly dangerous. In actual operation, it could hardly fail to be far more destructive of the idea of Constitutional restraint than would a proposal to take away altogether from the courts the power of passing on the constitutionality of legislative acts.