Progressivism

Progressivism was not a monolithic political movement, but rather an attitude marked by a belief in reform, progress, and the involvement of government in the everyday life of the nation. Progressives rejected the laissez-faire principles that had guided public policy in the late nineteenth century, embracing instead the idea of government as an active partner in shaping the American future. The Progressives sought to reform and modernize government at both local and national levels. At the local level, Progressives sought to end corrupt politics, provide relief to the poor, establish public health programs, and clean up the teeming slums of America’s industrial cities. At the national level, they supported the passage of regulatory and protective legislation, as well as the adoption of constitutional amendments advancing the goals of their reform agenda.

Changes in Court Personnel

When Justice Steven J. Field resigned from the Court in 1897, President McKinley appointed Joseph McKenna, who generally supported Progressive reforms from the bench. Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded McKinley as president, appointed Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William R. Day, and William H. Moody in the hope of protecting his trust-busting agenda against judicial challenges. Similarly, President Taft’s appointments of Charles Evans Hughes, Willis Van Devanter, and Mahlon Pitney strengthened the hand of progressivism on the Court, as did President Wilson’s appointments of James C. McReynolds, Louis D. Brandeis, and John H. Clarke. The new century thus began with a more reform-minded court than before, almost evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. Some of these justices ended their careers on the bench as extreme conservatives, but they were not viewed as such at the time of their appointment.

Federal Police Powers Upheld

The Supreme Court set the stage for the sweeping exercise of federal regulatory power in Champion v. Ames and McCray v. United States. In Champion, the Court held that so long as Congress has the power to act under the Commerce Clause, its purpose in legislating is not subject to judicial review. Similarly, in McCray, the Court held that Congress’s exercise of the tax power is not subject to any purpose tests. In effect, the tax and commerce powers can be used by Congress for regulatory purposes not primarily involving taxation or commerce. Together, these holdings opened up vast vistas for the exercise of federal power.

Restraints on the States

While the Court upheld expansive federal police powers, it limited the exercise of state police powers. In Lochner v. New York (1906), a narrowly divided court voted 5-4 to strike down a New York law limiting employment in commercial bakeries to a 10-hour workday. The majority was not satisfied that there was a sufficient health risk involved in such employment to justify a limitation on the hours of labor. The case was something of an anomaly given the Court’s accommodative approach to federal regulation during the Progressive Era.

Trust-Busting and the Court

President Theodore Roosevelt undertook more prosecutions under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act than had been brought by any of his predecessors. The Court accommodated his antitrust campaign by abandoning the narrow interpretation it had given to the statute in United States v. E.C. Knight (1895). In Northern Securities Company v. United States (1904), the Court held that restraints on competition also constitute restraints on trade under the act.

Stream of Commerce Theory

In Swift and Company v. United States (1905), the Court upheld an injunction against price-fixing agreements between meat-packing houses in Chicago on the ground that the agreements affected the distribution of livestock and meat across state lines. The holding abandoned the narrow interpretation of commerce adopted by the Court in the E.C. Knight case, bringing virtually every aspect of productive enterprise within Congress’s regulatory powers under the Commerce Clause.

The Rule of Reason Doctrine

A major obstacle to trust-busting in the early twentieth century was the common-law rule of reason doctrine that only unreasonable combinations are unlawful. In Standard Oil of New Jersey v. United States (1911), the Court held, as a matter of statutory construction, that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act prohibited only unreasonable combinations in restraint of trade. This interpretation of the law kept some of the most powerful corporations in America beyond the reach of the trust-busters.

Labor Unions and the Sherman Act

In the Danbury Hatters Case (1908), the Supreme Court unanimously held that combinations of workers were to be treated no differently from business combinations. The Sherman Act thus became a powerful weapon for use against organized labor.

Reviving and Strengthening the ICC

Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. ICC (1907) and ICC v. Illinois (1910) began to restore some of the power that had been stripped from the ICC by the Fuller Court. In these cases, the Court held that it would not review factual findings or policies underlying the decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Rather, the Court would review only whether the Commission had the authority to issue a decision in the first place. These rulings paved the way for grants of power by Congress to other regulatory agencies.

The New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson was elected president by promising Americans a “New Freedom.” He pledged to restore to individuals the freedom they had lost at the hands of unchecked corporations and exploitative employers. As president, Wilson undertook a number of initiatives to lower tariffs and increase the amount of regulation to which businesses were subjected. His administration passed laws governing worker’s compensation, child labor, and farm loans. These measures mark the final phase of progressivism before the enthusiasm for reform became a casualty of the nation’s entry into World War I.

Judiciary Act of 1914

The Judiciary Act of 1914 resolved a problem caused by Section 25 of the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789, under which the Supreme Court could only take appeals from state courts when the latter failed to uphold a right claimed under the Constitution, law, or treaty of the United States. Because no review was possible when the right claimed was upheld, the state courts in some cases had the last word in matters of federal law. The upshot was that the interpretation of federal law sometimes differed from state to state. The Judiciary Act of 1914 corrected this undesirable double standard by authorizing appeals from the state courts to the Supreme Court in all cases involving federal issues.

Sixteenth Amendment

The Sixteenth Amendment confers upon Congress the power to levy an income tax. The introduction of a federal income tax ensured that the wealthy shared the burden of paying for government. It also ensured that the federal government had the tax revenues with which to expand its regulatory functions.

Seventeenth Amendment

The ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment was one of the Progressives’ most significant victories. By providing for the direct election of senators, the amendment made government more truly representative of the people and therefore, Progressives believed, more responsive to the nation’s needs.

Prohibition

The Prohibition movement long predated progressivism, but the emphasis of the latter on social reform was a key factor in its ultimate success with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment. World War I also helped by giving the conservation of grain used to produce alcoholic beverages the gloss of patriotism as a war measure. Challenges to the amendment were rejected by the Supreme Court in Rhode Island v. Palmer (1920) and Dillon v. Gloss (1921).

Women’s Rights

Like Prohibition, the campaign for women’s suffrage was energized by progressives’ zeal for reform. And like the Prohibition Amendment, the campaign for women’s suffrage drew strength by the conditions of World War I, specifically the entry of women into the labor force. Women’s contributions to the war effort begged the question why they should not also have the right to vote. The answer came in 1920 with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Problems of Empire

By the early twentieth century, the United States had acquired diverse and far-flung territories throughout the world. In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, and in the 1890s acquired part of Samoa and the Hawaiian Islands. The nation also acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines in the wake of the Spanish-American War. The challenges of governing these distant territories and their inhabitants raised questions about their constitutional status. The Supreme Court dealt with these issues in the Insular Cases, defining the constitutional status of the nation’s overseas empire.