State of the Union addresses are usually sedate affairs, but the Supreme Court turned this year’s into must-see TV. The 6-3 decision invalidating the Liberation Day tariffs landed like a bomb last Friday. Many expected President Trump to train his ire on Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues on Tuesday night, especially after his post-ruling outbursts.
Trump prides himself on his unpredictability, however, and his comments about the Court were restrained. The president defied expectations again and dodged a trap that Franklin D. Roosevelt fell into. The greatest foreign policy test of this term is approaching, and the country needs Trump to outdo one of his most consequential predecessors yet again.
Much like Trump, FDR believed that speed was essential for undoing the damage wrought by the previous president, and he launched his New Deal with great energy. Many of FDR’s programs were unconstitutional though, and the Supreme Court threw out or curtailed much of his agenda.
FDR tried to strike back, and the blowback consumed much of his second term. Shortly after his second inauguration, he asked Congress to let him nominate six new justices to the Supreme Court. His confidence that the Democratic-controlled House and Senate would accede was misplaced. The "court packing" scheme split his party, and he compounded his mistake by attempting to oust the Democratic moderates in the 1938 primaries. New Deal skeptics in both parties feasted during the midterms.
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