Curtis 1900- 1950

Front 1

William McKinley decisively defeats William Jennings Bryan in a rematch of the 1896 Presidential election. McKinley's new running mate is Theodore Roosevelt, a hero of the Spanish-American War and a leading progressive reformer.

Back 1

1900

Front 2

Maxwell v. Dow: The SC, in an opinion written by Justice Peckham, soon to be the author of Lochner v. NY, rules that criminal jury trial guarantee of the 6th Amendment does not limit the states. The SC warns that the application of the BOR to the states would threaten state sovereignty.

Back 2

1901

Front 3

Theodore Roosevelt becomes President after McKinley's assassination. Roosevelt's presidency is often seen as the beginning of the Progressive Era.

Back 3

1901

Front 4

OR becomes the first state to establish primary elections for the nomination of candidates in general elections.

Back 4

1902

Front 5

Champion v. Ames: The SC holds that Congress may use its commerce power to ban all interstate movement of lottery tickets.

Back 5

1903

Front 6

"Muckraking" articles by Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens in the national magazines expose business and governmental corruption.

Back 6

1903

Front 7

Orville and Wilbur Wright fly and airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC

Back 7

1903

Front 8

WEB Du Bois publishes "The Souls of Black Folk", criticizing Booker T. Washington's willingess to forfeit social justice for economic progress.

Back 8

1903

Front 9

Northern Securities Co. v. US: The SC upholds the use of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up the James J. Hill - J.P. Morgan RR monopoly. Justice Holmes dissents, arguing that every consolidation is not a restraint of trade.

Back 9

1904

Front 10

Dorr v. US: The SC holds that the Constitution does not "follow the flag" and that it is therefore permissible to try someone in the Phillippines without a jury, and that in general, BOR guarantees do not necessarily apply to overseas territories.

Back 10

1904

Front 11

OR becomes the first state to adopt the initiative and referendum for the enactment of legislation.

Back 11

1904

Front 12

Lochner v. NY: The SC, in a 5-4 decision, strikes down a state law limiting hours of work for bakers. It asserts that the law violates liberty of K said to be secured by Sue Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Critics of the Lochner decision and other decisions striking down Progressive Era reform legislation urge restraints on judicial review.

Back 12

1905

Front 13

Albert Einstein publishes a paper setting out his theory of relativity.

Back 13

1905

Front 14

Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Back 14

1906

Front 15

William James publishes "Pragmatism, A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking." James' philosophy affects legal thinkers, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Back 15

1907

Front 16

Muller v. OR: The SC upholds an OR statute limiting the number of hours that women can work. The case is seen as a great victory for Progressives. It was argued by Louis D. Brandeis, "The People's Lawyer," who presented the SC with massive statistical evidence on harm to women from overwork. This type of "sociological" evidence is known as a "Brandeis Brief"

Back 16

1908

Front 17

Japan and US reach a "Gentleman's Agreement" pursuant to which Japan agrees to voluntarily limit the number of its citizens emigrating to the US.

Back 17

1908

Front 18

Henry Ford introduces the "Model T," a car mass-produced by assembly-line methods.

Back 18

1909

Front 19

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) if formed.

Back 19

1909

Front 20

In 1908, after serving out McKinley's term and winning election on his own, Theodore Roosevelt retired from the Presidency, but in 1912 he opposes the re-election bid of his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft. When Roosevelt loses the Republican nomination, he runs on the Progressive Party (also called the "Bull Moose Party") Roosevelt divides the Republican vote, setting the stage for Democrat, Woodrow Wilson, to win the election. Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs received nearly a millions votes.

Back 20

1912

Front 21

Woodrow Wilson serves as President. Progressive era ends with ends of Wilson's second term.

Back 21

1913-1921

Front 22

The Income Tax Amendment (the 16th) is adopted.

Back 22

1913

Front 23

The Federal Tax Act revamps the American banking structure.

Back 23

1913

Front 24

The Federal Reserve Act revamps the American banking structure.

Back 24

1913

Front 25

Alice Paul organizes a woman's suffrage parade in Washington, DC, on the day of Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

Back 25

1913

Front 26

The Panama Canal is opened.

Back 26

1914

Front 27

Congress enacts the Clayton Antitrust Act, which forbids a tendency to monopolize commerce.

Back 27

1914

Front 28

Congress establishes the Federal Trade Commission.

Back 28

1914

Front 29

Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, is elected to the HOR and becomes the first woman to serve in Congress.

Back 29

1916

Front 30

US in WWI

Back 30

1917-1918

Front 31

Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene Debs is convicted and imprisoned for an anti-war speech. His conviction is upheld by the SC two years later.

Back 31

1917

Front 32

Members of the National Woman's Party picket the White House. Alice Paul and 96 other suffragists are arrested and jailed for "obstructing traffic" when they go on a hunger strike to protest their arrest and treatment, they are force-fed.

Back 32

1917

Front 33

The HOR passes a resolution in favor of a woman's suffrage amendment. The resolution is defeated by the Senate.

Back 33

1918

Front 34

Hammer v. Dagenhart: The SC, in a 5-4 decision, holds that Congress may not prohibit movement in commerce of articles made by child labor.

Back 34

1918

Front 35

Adoption of the 18th Amendment inaugurates nationwide "Prohibition" which lasts until 1933. In 1933, the 21st Amendment repeals the 18th.

Back 35

1919

Front 36

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting women the vote is adopted by a joint resolution of Congress and sent to states for ratification.

Back 36

1919

Front 37

Schenck v. US: The SC articulates a constricted view of free speech under Justice Holme's "Clear and Present Danger Test".

Abrams v. US: In his dissent, Holmes, joined by Brandeis, reshapes the test as a much more speech-protectice one.

Back 37

1919

Front 38

The US Senate refuses to ratify peace treaty that would have made US a member of the newly formed League of Nations.

Back 38

1919

Front 39

The Senate again rejects US membership in the League of Nations.

Back 39

1920

Front 40

The Woman's Suffrage Amendment (the 19th) is ratified.

Back 40

1920

Front 41

A radio station in Pittsburgh inaugurates commercial radio broadcasting in the US

Back 41

1920

Front 42

The decade of the 1920's, known as the "Roaring Twenties," marks the end of the Progressive Era and its various reforms. Anti-trust enforcement declines, as does the strength of labor unions. There is a wave of mergers and the rise of public utility holding companies. Farmers suffer throughout the decade as farm prices decline. The decade ends with the onset of the Great Depression in Oct. 1929. Republicans control the White House from 1921 until 1922 w. the presidences of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.

Back 42

1920

Front 43

The Budget and Accounting Act provides for a centralized federal budget.

Back 43

1921

Front 44

Meyer v. Nebraska: The SC invalidates, as a violation of the 'liberty" of the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, a state statute prohibiting the teaching of foreign languages in schools. The case shows the Lochner Court's recognition of personal as well as economic rights as "liberty"

Back 44

1923

Front 45

At the behest of Chief Justice Taft, Congress establishes what later becomes known as the Judicial Conference of the US, which provides a system for administration and oversight of the federal judicial system by senior federal judges.

Back 45

1923

Front 46

Congress passes a law extending US citzenship to all Native Americans.

Back 46

1924

Front 47

The National Origins Act, the most important immigration statute of the 20th cent., limits annual immigration to 2 percent of each nationality as the 1890 census, an effort to limit certain "undesirable" ethnic groups in the US.

Back 47

1924

Front 48

Gitlow v. NY: The SC assumes that the federal guarantees of free speech and press limit the states. Beginning of incorporation of the First Amendment into the 14th as a limit on states.

Back 48

1925

Front 49

Scopes "Monkey Trial" is held in TN, a teacher is fined for teaching evolution.

Back 49

1925

Front 50

The Judiciary Act of ____ eliminates most automatic appeals to the US SC and makes most of the SC's appellate jxdn discretionary through the "certiorari" process.

Back 50

1925

Front 51

Charles A. Lindbergh, alone in the "Spirit of St. Lous", makes the first New York-Paris non-stop flight.

Back 51

1927

Front 52

"The Jazz Singer", with Al Jolson, demonstrates partially talking movies.

Back 52

1927

Front 53

Whitney v. CA: Justice Brandeis, in a concurring opinion, crafts a modern rationale for free speech: that evil words should be answered with counter-speech, unless immediate circumstances prevent an opportunity for discussion.

Back 53

1927

Front 54

Wall Street's crash ends prosperity. The Great Depression begins. Wide-spread unemployment, bank failures, business and personal bankruptcy, and foreclosure of mortgages on homes and farms sweep the nation.

Back 54

1929

Front 55

John Maynard Keynes, an English economist and monetary expert, departs from classical laissez-faire economic concepts to endorse a gov't public works program to promote employment during recessions. HIs theories, known as Keynesian economics, are among the most influential economic formulations of the 20th century. He advocates spending programs, such as those in the New Deal - but on a more extensive scale, to maintain high national income.

Back 55

1929

Front 56

Pres. Hoover appoints Charles Evans Hughes to be Chief Justice, replacing William Howard Taft (____ -_____); he also appoints Owen J Roberts to the court, replacing Ed Sanford (____ -_____)

Back 56

1930

Taft: (1921-1930)

Sanford: (1923-1930)

Front 57

Near v. Minnesota: The SC upholds an injunction involving future issues of libelous or scandalous newspapers to be an invalid prior restraint.

Back 57

1931

Front 58

Pres. Hoover appoints Cardozo to the Court, replacing Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (___ -____)

Back 58

1932
Holmes: 1902-1932

Front 59

Roosevelt elected President and will ultimately serve until ____. His New Deal is characterized by a far more activist government.

Back 59

1932

Front 60

Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act curtails the extent to which courts can issue injunctions to bar strikes and interfere with other labor union activities.

Back 60

1932

Front 61

Congress enacts the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act

Back 61

1934

Front 62

The SC imperils the New Deal by invalidating eight federal economic regulatory statutes, including the National Industrial Recovery Act in Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan *and* Schechter Poultry Corp. v. US; the Agricultural Adjustment Act in U.S. v. Butler, and the Bituminous Coal Conservation Act in Carter v. Carter Coal.

Several of the cases rely upon a highly restrictive interpretation of the commerce clause.

Back 62

1935-1936

Front 63

Pres. Roosevelt is re-elected in a landslide, carrying 46/48 states. Democrats win enormous majorities in both houses of Congress.

Back 63

1936

Front 64

Palko v. CT: The SC explains Selective Incorporation of BOR into 14th Amendment as a limit on the states.

Back 64

1937

Front 65

Pres. Roosevelt proposes litigation to permit him to appoint up to 6 additional justices to the SC. The Senate Judiciary Committee tables this so-called "court packing" measure after it encounters wide-spread opposition.

Back 65

1937

Front 66

Pres. Roosevelt appoints Hugo Black to the SC, replacing Willis Van Devanter (___-___)

Back 66

1937;
(1910-1937)

Front 67

In several landmark decisions, the SC upholds the constitutionality of important New Deal legislation.

Cases include:
(1) National Labor Relations Bd. v. Jones Laughlin Steel Corp. (using an expansive definition of interstate commerce to uphold far-reaching regulation of labor-management relations)
(2) Steward Machine Co v. Davis (using an expansive definition of the taxing power to uphold the unemployment compensation features of the Social Security Act, and
(3) Helvering v. Davis (using an expansive definition of the General Welfare Clause to uphold the old-age benefits provisions of the Social Security Act)

Meanwhile, the SC interred the doctrine of economic due process in West Coat Hotel v. Parrish.

These Decisions Signaled the so-called "Judicial Revolution of ____"

Back 67

1937

Front 68

Congress enacts a national minimum wage.

Back 68

1938

Front 69

Congress of Industrial Organizations secedes from the AFL. It becomes a vigorous independent labor org. that seeks to un-organize previously unorganized industrial workers.

Back 69

1938

Front 70

Pres. Roosevelt appoints Felix Frankfurter to the SC, replacing Ben Cardozo (____ -___) and Stanley Reed, replacing George Sutherland (____ -_____)

Back 70

1938
Cardozo: (1932-1938)
Sutherland: (1922-1938)

Front 71

US v. Carolene Products: The SC holds that economic regulation typically will be judges by a rational basis standard. Footnote 4 suggests a higher level of scrutiny in at least some cases involving civil rights, liberties, and discrete and insular minorities.

Back 71

1938

Front 72

Promulgation of the FRCP

Back 72

1938

Front 73

PRes. Roosevelt appoints William Douglas to the Court, replacing Brandeis (____-____) and Murphy, replacing Pierce Butler (____-___)

Back 73

1939
Brandeis (1916-1939)
Butler (1922-1939)

Front 74

Minersville School District v. Gobitis: The SC upholds the expulsion of Jehova's Witness schoolchildren from school for refusing to salute the American flag.

Back 74

1940

Front 75

The Federal Communications Commission authorizes the first commercial TV stations.

Back 75

1941

Front 76

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, US officially enters WW II.

Back 76

1941

Front 77

Pres. Roosevelt promotes Justice Stone to Chief Justice, replacing Hughes (____-___, ____-___ as Chief) and appoints Byrnes to the SC, eplacing McReynolds (____-___) and Jackson, who takes Stone's Associate seat.

Back 77

1941
Hughes (1910-16; 1930-1941 as Chief)
McReynolds (1914-41)

Front 78

US v. Darby: The SC unanimously overrules Hammer v. Dagenhart and allows Congress to ban the interstate transportation of items made in violation of the Fair Labor Standard Act.

Back 78

1941

Front 79

The federal gov't forcibly removes 120,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast (approx. 2/3 of whom are American citizens) from their homes and relocates them in interment camps.

Back 79

1942

Front 80

Wickard v. Filburn: The SC unanimously adopts a very deferential aggregate impact test for determining scope of federal commerce power.

Back 80

1942

Front 81

Skinner v. OK: The SC invalidates a state criminal eugenics law (mandatory sterilization for larceny but not for embezzlement) as violating the Equal Protections Clause. The SC subjects a statute that involves the "fundamental" right to procreation to heightened scrutiny.

Back 81

1942

Front 82

Race riots in Detroit and Harlem leave many dead or injured.

Back 82

1943

Front 83

Pres. Roosevelt appoints Wiley B. Rutledge to the SC, replacing Byrnes (____ -____)

Back 83

1943
Byrnes: (1941-1942)

Front 84

WV BOE v. Barnette

Back 84

The SC upholds that the refusal of Jehova's Witness schoolchildren to salute the American Flag is protected by the guarantee of freedom of speech.

Front 85

Pres. Roosevelt, though quite ill, is elected to an unprecedented 4th term.

Back 85

1944

Front 86

Korematsu v. US: SC upholds forced "re-location" and detention of Jap-Americans into interment camps, although the SC at the same time announces that racial classifications are inherently suspect.

Back 86

1944

Front 87

NBC broadcasts the first network newscast.

Back 87

1944

Front 88

Pres. Roosevelt dies, replaced by Harry Truman, who is re-elected in 1948.

Back 88

1945

Front 89

Germany surrenders on May 8. Japan surrenders on August 14 after US drops first atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Back 89

1945

Front 90

The UN Charter is adopted at San Francisco.

Back 90

1945

Front 91

Pres. Truman appoints Burton to the SC, replacing Roberts ( ___ -___)

Back 91

1945
(1930-1945)

Front 92

Southern Pacific v. AZ: The SC holds that an AZ statute that prohibits long trains from operating within the state violates the dormant commerce clause as an undue burden on interstate commerce.

Back 92

1945

Front 93

The Cold War begins. After WW II, Soviet Troops remain in Eastern Europe and establish pro-Soviet regimes.

Back 93

1946

Front 94

Pres. Truman appoints Vinson to be Chief Justice, replacing Stone (____-___; ____-___ as Chief)

Back 94

1946
Stone: (1925-1946 and 1941-1946 as Chief)

Front 95

Administrative Procedure Act establishes rule-making procedures for executive departments and independent gov't agencies.

Back 95

1946

Front 96

The Marshall Plan for the economic reconstruction of Europe is introduced. The plan marks the first major US offensive in "The Cold War"

Back 96

1947

Front 97

Jackie Robinson integrates MLB by playing for Brooklyn Dodgers.

Back 97

1947

Front 98

Adamson v. CA: The SC, in a 5-4 decision, refuses to apply the privilege against self-incrimination to the states. In dissent. Black advocates Total Incorporation of BOR, relying on his reading of the historical record.

Back 98

1947

Front 99

The Taft-Hartley Act, passed over Pres. Truman's veto, curtails the powers of labor unions. Its provisions include prohibition of secondary boycotts and the closed shop, and it increases the legal liability of labor unions for their actions.

Back 99

1947

Front 100

Whitaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of giving State Sept. documents to the Soviet Union. Hiss is convicted of perjury a year later.

Back 100

1948

Front 101

Pres. Truman issues an Executive Order integrating the military and advocates federal civil rights legislation. Angered by the pro-civil rights stand of the national Democratic party, Southern Democrats bolt the party and nominate Gov. Strom Thurmond of SC as the States' Rights Party candidate for Pres. The Dixiecraft revolt marks the beginning of the end of the solidly Democratic South.

Back 101

1948

Front 102

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a commission chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, is promulgated by the Federal Assembly of the UN.

Back 102

1948

Front 103

China becomes communist.

Back 103

1949

Front 104

Federal prosecutors bring criminal charges against 11 top leaders of the US Communist Party. They are convicted under the Smith Act and sentenced to prison

Back 104

1949

Front 105

Pres. Truman appoints Clark to the SC, replacing Murphy (___ - ___), and Minton, replacing Rutledge (____-____)

Back 105

1949
Murphy: 1940-1949
Rutledge: 1943-1949