ABSTRACT
It is not unusual to hear speakers extol the virtues of the U.S. Constitution. They correctly point out that it is the oldest constitution in existence, having been framed in 1789 and containing only twenty-six changes achieved through a much lesser number of amendments. All of this is true, but not revealing of what has otherwise occurred to this fundamental document during this time. The meaning of many of its terms and provisions has changed greatly. From a document that was intended to operate as a substantial limitation on the economic powers of government, it has become in many areas amenable to the practices of government that deprive people of their economic liberties. The Framers enumerated, limited, and separated the powers of the national government but beginning during the New Deal, which the Roosevelt administration instituted to overcome the Great Depression that commenced in 1929, the U.S. Supreme Court has approved a substantial enlargement of legislative powers. Thus, in effect, the Supreme Court has provided the American people with two constitutions. Until the New Deal, the Framers’ intentions of limited government were mostly recognized and enforced by the Court. During this period the nation underwent periods of great prosperity, serious economic depressions, war and peace, etc. Nevertheless, throughout the period, the Court rejected demands that it change the orientation of the society from maximizing freedom to maximizing regulations.
