Court-Curbing Periods in American History

Due to its unavoidable involvement in the political process, the Supreme Court has often been an object of congressional attack. Excellent descriptive studies have been made of certain periods of conflict between Congress and the Court,' but there is a lack of writing which systematically analyzes relations between Congress and the Court throughout American history. It is the purpose of this: paper to analyze in a partially quantitative manner some of the factors which seem to account for the occurrence or nonoccurrence and for the success or failure of congressional attempts to curb the Court.