More Activist Reconstruction Court

[loneranger]

So this is just something I became recently interested in, but I was wondering if a more active Supreme Court could help maintain the rights that briefly existed during Reconstruction but were then stamped out by organizations like the Red Shirts, White League, and Ku Klux Klan (and of course Southern state governments).

A brief google quickly revealed a couple of cases :

• Mississippi v Johnson
• Georgia v Stanton
• Slaughter-House Cases

That IMO if they were handled differently might've served to help cement some of the rights gained (and subsequently lost) in the Reconstruction era. I haven't been able to research much yet, but I'd imagine this will likely require some different people to be on the court (which at the time had 10 members).

Is there anyone here that has more knowledge on this? Any ideas on how something like this would've worked?

 

[Mikestone8]

All I can say for certain is that after 1872 there was only one Democratic appointee (Nathan Clifford) on the Court, and after 1881 none until 1888. So it would not seem to be a party-political matter. Even Republican appointees would seem to have been lukewarm.

Many years ago I did a WI where a surviving Lincoln put Ben Butler on the Court - not to change the Court's policy but just to get rid of him. However, even if that happened he would be only one vote.

 

[loneranger]

All I can say for certain is that after 1872 there was only one Democratic appointee (Nathan Clifford) on the Court, and after 1881 none until 1888. So it would not seem to be a party-political matter. Even Republican appointees would seem to have been lukewarm.

Many years ago I did a WI where a surviving Lincoln put Ben Butler on the Court - not to change the Court's policy but just to get rid of him. However, even if that happened he would be only one vote.

Good point. Lincoln was able to appoint five judges to the court (half of the court at the time) and it was later limited to 7 (but they never got down to that) and then switched to 9. Maybe if lots of them or more of them are Radical and/or the Court actually does go down to 7, the Radicals could have a lot more judicial power.

The only problem is I doubt Lincoln would stack the court w/ Radical Republicans. So it would have to be people who weren't as vocal at the time of the ACW but developed into Radicals after the war.