EXTENT AND APPLICATION OF THE SUPREME COURT'S POWER (1850-1875)
This research paper summarizes and analyzes the approach taken by the American Supreme Court between 1850 and 1875 in its jurisprudence concerning the extent and application of its power.
During the last 14 years (1850-1864) when Roger Taney was Chief Justice, (1836-1864), the Court was largely preoccupied with the allocation of power between national and state governments. The Taney Court permitted more scope for the exercise of state power over commerce than did the Court of Chief Justice John Marshall (1801-1836), without rolling back the expansion of federal constitutional power pioneered by its predecessor. Although it sometimes exercised judicial self-restraint, the Taney Court overreached itself and damaged the standing of the Court by its sweeping but misguided assertion of federal power in the Dred Scott decision of 1857.
The Court under Chief Justice Salmon Chase (1864-1873) generally accommodated itself to the tremendous expansion of federal power resulting from the Civil War and acquiesced, with some exceptions, in the wartime actions of the presidency and Congress's reconstruction laws. The Chase Court and the early Court under Chief Justice Morrison Waite (1874-1888) maintained a laissez faire and even protective approach toward the private sector. Apart from the Dred Scott decision, the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court in the third quarter of the 19th century was in keeping with the temper of the times and facilitated the economic and territorial expansion and unity of the nation. Even though some their holdings have not withstood the test of time, each of these Courts established new constitutional doctrines of enduring importance which helped ensure the continued prestige and influence of the Court.
According to McCloskey, "the United States began its history . . . with a Constitution that posed more questions than it answered and with...