George
Sutherland was born in Stony Stratford, England, on 25th March, 1862.
When he was a child the family emigrated to the United States. They
settled in Utah and was later educated at the Brigham Young Academy
and the University of Michigan.
Sutherland was admitted to the bar in 1883 and practiced in Provo,
Utah. A member of the Republican Party,
Sutherland served the House of Representatives (1901-03) and the United
States Senate (1905-17).
After being defeated in 1916 Sutherland became a legal adviser to
Warren Harding. Soon after Harding became president he appointed Sutherland
to the Supreme Court. Sutherland was
a conservative justice and in 1923 outlawed the minimum wage.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic
Party candidate, was elected as president in 1932. Over the next
few years Sutherland and the other justices who were supporters of
the Republican Party, ruled against
the National Recovery Administration (NRA),
the Agricultural Adjustment Act
(AAA) and ten other New Deal laws.
On 2nd February, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt
made a speech attacking the Supreme Court
for its actions over New Deal legislation.
He pointed out that seven of the nine judges (Sutherland, Charles
Hughes, Willis Van Devanter, Harlan
Stone, Owen Roberts, Benjamin
Cardozo and Pierce Butler) had been
appointed by Republican presidents.
Roosevelt had just won re-election by 10,000,000 votes and resented
the fact that the justices could veto legislation that clearly had
the support of the vast majority of the public.
Roosevelt suggested that the age was a major problem as six of the
judges were over 70 (Sutherland, Charles
Hughes, Willis Van Devanter, James
McReynolds, Louis Brandeis and Pierce
Butler). Roosevelt announced that he was going to ask Congress
to pass a bill enabling the president to expand the Supreme
Court by adding one new judge, up to a maximum off six, for every
current judge over the age of 70.
Charles Hughes realised that Roosevelt's
Court Reorganization Bill would result in the Supreme
Court coming under the control of the Democratic
Party. His first move was to arrange for a letter written by him
to be published by Burton Wheeler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
In the letter Hughes cogently refuted all the claims made by Franklin
D. Roosevelt.
However, behind the scenes Charles Hughes
was busy doing deals to make sure that Roosevelt's bill would be defeated
in Congress. On 29th March, Owen Roberts
announced that he had changed his mind about voting against minimum
wage legislation. Hughes also reversed his opinion on the Social
Security Act and the National Labour Relations
Act (NLRA) and by a 5-4 vote they were now declared to be constitutional.
Then Willis Van Devanter, probably the
most conservative of the justices, announced his intention to resign.
He was replaced by Hugo Black, a member
of the Democratic Party and a strong
supporter of the New Deal. In July,
1937, Congress defeated the Court Reorganization Bill by 70-20. However,
Roosevelt had the satisfaction of knowing he had a Supreme
Court that was now less likely to block his legislation.
George Sutherland resigned from the Supreme
Court in 1938 at the age of 76. He died at Stockbridge, Massachusetts
on 18th July, 1942.
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