The Hughes Court: From Progressivism to Pluralism, 1930 to 1941
describes the closing of one era in constitutional jurisprudence and the
opening of another. This comprehensive study of the Supreme Court from
1930 to 1941 - when Charles Evans Hughes was Chief Justice - shows how
nearly all justices, even the most conservative, accepted the broad
premises of a Progressive theory of government and the Constitution. The
Progressive view gradually increased its hold throughout the decade, but
at its end, interest group pluralism began to influence the law. By
1941, constitutional and public law was discernibly different from what
it had been in 1930, but there was no sharp or instantaneous
Constitutional Revolution in 1937 despite claims to the contrary. This
study supports its conclusions by examining the Court's work in
constitutional law, administrative law, the law of justiciability, civil
rights and civil liberties, and statutory interpretation.