Article by Miriam Galston
Harlan Fiske Stone was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court from 1925 to 1941, and was the Court's Chief Justice from 1941 until 1946. During that period, he developed a jurisprudence that mixed judicial activism on issues of civil and political rights with judicial restraint on economic matters. Most scholars who have addressed Justice Stone's mixed jurisprudence have concluded that he was fundamentally an adherent of judicial restraint and that his activism was an exception to his restraint. This Article challenges that thesis by demonstrating that, before he joined the Court, Stone was a supporter of judicial activism with respect to both economic and noneconomic freedoms. The Article then explores the evolution of Stone's thought to determine how he finally arrived at his mixed jurisprudence. It demonstrates that Stone believed that the social and economic changes occurring in America and political events abroad required more economic experimentation by legislatures. For that reason, judicial restraint was required in determining the constitutionality of economic regulation.
About the Author
Miriam Galston. Associate Professor, The George Washington University Law School. B.A. 1967, Cornell University; Ph.D. 1973, University of Chicago; J.D. 1982, Yale Law School.
Citation
70 Tul. L. Rev. 137 (1995)