The Court at War

FDR, His Justices, and the World They Made

By: Cliff Sloan

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

The inside story of how one president forever altered the most powerful legal institution in the country—with consequences that endure today

By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices—the most by any president except George Washington—and handpicked the chief justice.

But the wartime Roosevelt Court had two faces. One was bold and progressive, the other supine and abject, cowed by the charisma of the revered president.

The Court at War explores this pivotal period. It provides a cast of unforgettable characters in the justices—from the mercurial, Vienna-born intellectual Felix Frankfurter to the Alabama populist Hugo Black; from the western prodigy William O. Douglas, FDR’s initial pick to be his running mate in 1944, to Roosevelt’s former attorney general and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson.

The justices’ shameless capitulation and unwillingness to cross their beloved president highlight the dangers of an unseemly closeness between Supreme Court justices and their political patrons. But the FDR Court’s finest moments also provided a robust defense of individual rights, rights the current Court has put in jeopardy. Sloan’s intimate portrait is a vivid, instructive tale for modern times.

©2023 Cliff Sloan (P)2023 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

“The story of FDR’s unsuccessful effort in the late 1930s to ‘pack’ the Supreme Court is well known. The Court at War tells the fascinating story of what happened later. As FDR filled numerous Court vacancies, and the country became engulfed in WWII, he ended up getting the supportive Court he had long wanted. Cliff Sloan’s deeply researched account of relations between the ‘War Court’ and FDR during the early 1940s—complete with insightful portraits of the justices—demonstrates we still live in a legal world shaped by the events of those momentous years.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian

“Although much has been written about the government’s actions during World War II, this is the first in-depth examination of the Supreme Court during this time. Sloan’s beautifully written book tells this story and makes it compelling by focusing on the people involved in litigating and deciding the cases. The book is filled with a wealth of new information and will surely be regarded as the definitive work about the Court during this pivotal point in American history.”—Erwin Chemerinsky, dean, Berkeley Law School

“So much has been written about FDR’s battle with the Supreme Court, not enough about the operations of the court he then assembled. With the insight of a lawyer and the craft of a storyteller, Sloan provides a compelling, textured account of the third branch at a pivotal moment in history. The Court at War is a gripping, behind-the-scenes look at an institution that at times rose heroically to the moment, producing enduring victories for free speech and civil liberties, and at times shamefully succumbed to the perceived needs of a nation at war and the ugly prejudices of the era. At a time when the high court is again in the headlines and under scrutiny, Sloan’s rich portrait of the justices and the president with whom they served—often too closely—offers a timely reminder of the achievements, and imperfections, of a court whose lessons resonate today.”—Ruth Marcus, Washington Post columnist

Crimes of the Court

More documentation that FDR disregarded the Constitution and the Court was devoted to him. After all, he appointed seven justices and the Chief Justice who were pretty much “his” men, if not “yes” men.

An interesting book

A sprawling history of the WW2 Supreme Court that features biographies of all the justices & other key players in the action (e.g., individuals involved in key court cases & individuals in the political & executive branch sphere), & sketches/commentary on major court cases that affected decisions & public policy in the decades thereafter (for better & for worse). The author also attempts to weave in some of the (mostly) well-known historical fabric upon which the justice bios, politics/policy & cases sit atop. If all this sounds ambitious, it is. The author’s ambitions when combined with the book’s structure does lead to both repetitiveness & sometimes a sense of losing’s one’s way (this is sometimes accentuated by audio vs old fashioned reading). The book could have used a stronger editor in places to tame the narrative & grammar. All this aside I did learn a lot from the book despite being familiar with the broad brush of material. This made reading it quite interesting in spite of my grumbling. The narrator does very well with the material as well.

Fascinating history

Well worth reading for those interested in that period’s history and those interested in the Supreme Court. It will evidence insights that are new to either group