About the Program
James Simon, law professor and dean emeritus at New York Law School, recounts the confrontations between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes. The author reports that Roosevelt's New Deal proposals were consistently challenged by the Chief Justice as unconstitutional. Following President Roosevelt's reelection in 1936, he introduced legislation to restructure the Supreme Court, effectively packing the court with pro-New Deal justices. Chief Justice Hughes rebuked Roosevelt's plan and the proposed legislation was defeated in Congress. James Simon speaks at Pickwick Book Shop in Nyack, New York.