ABSTRACT
Members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were surely knowledgeable about the serious hardships created by periods of severe economic contraction but did not provide special powers to overcome them. The majority of the Court consistently sought to carry out the constitutional objectives of limiting the power of government. The history of the United States from the colonial period to World War II included many periods of economic depression and economic prosperity. Accordingly, one must conclude that the justice’s views on legislative powers are unique to him rather than a principled interpretation of legislative power under the Constitution. Many constitutional scholars and commentators have accepted and perpetuated the myth of a reawakened judiciary. One might question the standards of the justices who deliberately flaunted the rules and precedents legitimately established under the Constitution. Many in the United States and many in the rest of the world have long harbored it. But the Framers of the US Constitution repudiated such thinking.
