The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

Magliocca (law, Indiana Univ.) focuses on the failed career of three-time Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan to describe a pattern of Supreme Court obstructionism against the rising Populist movement of the late 19th century. The author theorizes that the high court, at any given moment in history, is more a reflection of the political, economic, and social values of a previous generation than a reflection of the prevailing thought of the current era. Thus, he concludes, the development of a contemporary constitutional theory lags behind political evolution and prevents the latter from maturing to the level that a progressive society demands. Magliocca argues that such judicial obstruction inhibited progressive political movement and, in the case of Bryan, fed the notion that the level of social change promoted by the Populist movement and its most outspoken advocate was unsupported by constitutional theory and therefore inherently undesirable. The author shows how the Republicans seized upon this flawed concept and used it to their advantage.