Viewing President Theodore Roosevelt: "The Courts." (1908).President Theodore Roosevelt: "The Courts." (1908).In his last State of the Union Message to Congress, delivered on December 8, 1908, President Roosevelt devoted a lengthy section to a stinging critique of the judiciary. He denounced judges who were out-of-touch with the realities of the modern industrial workplace, who imposed out-of-date social and economic philosophies in their rulings. He called for reform of ex parte labor injunctions. And he advocated that only the federal government---not the states and certainly not the courts---could regulate complex enterprises "doing interstate business." |