In 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that Black Americans could not be citizens—and that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories. The Dred Scott decision didn’t end the slavery debate. It blew it open.
“The Court didn’t settle the issue. It supercharged the war to come.”
Lincoln seized the political moment. The Civil War did what the Court wouldn’t: it killed slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment buried Dred Scott. But judicial review had been scorched with politics—and trust was slow to return.
In the 1930s, Roosevelt tried to break the Court outright.
New Deal reforms kept getting struck down. So FDR threatened to pack the bench: one new justice for every sitting one over seventy. The bill failed, but the pressure worked. Justice Owen Roberts flipped. Suddenly, the Court backed the New Deal.
“They called it the switch in time that saved nine.”
The Constitution bent just enough. The balance held.
In 1974, it didn’t bend at all.
Nixon refused to release Oval Office tapes. The Court ruled, 8–0, that not even the president was above the law. Nixon resigned three days later.
This time, the trapdoor worked.
Then came Bush v. Gore.
With the presidency hanging on a Florida recount, the Court intervened. A 5–4 ruling froze the tally and handed the election to George W. Bush. The justices claimed it was a one-off.
The public wasn’t convinced.
“The Court said Bush. The country shrugged. But trust never fully returned.”
Then came Trump.
Courts blocked his travel bans, stalled his immigration orders, struck down his census plan. He didn’t file countersuits. He tweeted.
“The opinion of this so-called judge is ridiculous.”
Still, he understood the long game. He appointed over 200 federal judges, including three to the Supreme Court. But even they wouldn’t overturn the 2020 election.
Sixty lawsuits. Nearly all dismissed. One Trump appointee put it plainly: “We have neither specific allegations nor proof. Charges require both.”
On January 6, when courts failed to deliver what he wanted, he turned to the crowd. The Capitol fell under siege. But the judiciary held.
Now it’s 2025. And the storm is back.
Congress is considering the Judicial Relief Clarification Act—stripping federal courts of power to block federal laws unless they can prove “irreparable harm to national