Supreme Court of the Confederate States

The Supreme Court of the Confederate States was established on May 27, 1866, after several years of wrangling between Jefferson Davis and members of Congress. The Confederate States Constitution of 1862 allowed for such a court to be established in Article III, Section 1, which read: "The judicial power of the {United} [Confederate] States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office."

The Supreme Court was left intact for several years, and was largely respected by the ruling class and the Whig Party. During the rise of Jake Featherston and the Freedom Party in the 1920s, the conservative Court saw a threat to the status quo in the CSA, and allowed incumbent President Burton Mitchel to run for election in 1927 (he became President after the death of Wade Hampton V, and was never elected -- the C.S. Constitution disallowed Presidents to run for a second term). Mitchel defeated Featherston, and the status quo was preserved for the time being.

In the spring of 1929, the Richmond Stock Exchange crashed, hurling the Confederacy into the Great Depression. Featherston's Freedom Party rode the wave of disenchantment into power, with a majority in the House of Representatives and Featherston as President after the November 1933 election. Chief Justice James McReynolds grudgingly swore the Freedom Party leader into office on March 4, 1934, and hoped that Featherston would leave the Constitution intact.

McReynolds' hope was dashed almost immediately. The Freedom-controlled Congress passed a bill authorizing the contruction of dams in the Tennessee Valley, which was signed into law in July 1934 by President Featherston. A Freedom Party sympathizer (prompted by Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig) sued, claiming that the law was unconstitutional -- and it was, since it violated the clause forbidding the construction of facilities in rivers that did not aid navigation. McReynolds and his court struck down the law in December 1934, and assumed that that was the end of the River and Dam Act.

Featherston was delighted. The Supreme Court had played right into his hands when it struck down a law that was popular among citizens. Koenig's lawyers informed the Justice Department that Featherston could use the precedent of the CSA not having a Supreme Court for the first four years of existence, and in January 1935 the Freedom Party leader abolished the Court, declaring that "James McReynolds had made his decision, now let him enforce it!" When McReynolds went to argue the matter with Featherston and Koenig, the former Chief Justice was told to stay quiet or face a bullet on the spot. McReynolds backed down, and with the Freedom Party dominating public opinion in the Confederacy, no one ever complained out loud that the CSA no longer had a check on Jake Featherston.

Categories: Southern Victory