structural:scholar_edition, stylistic:style_transfer
Dispute over court power

Roosevelt gave speeches in the West in the late summer and early fall of 1910 in which he severely criticized the nation's judiciary. Roosevelt not only attacked the Supreme Court's 1905 decision in Lochner v. New York, he accused federal courts of undermining democracy, branding the suspect jurists "fossilized judges," and compared their tendency to strike down progressive reform legislation, to Justice Roger B. Taney 's ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). To ensure the constitution served the public interests, Roosevelt joined other progressives in calling for the "judicial recall," which would enable popular majorities to remove judges from office and reverse unpopular judicial decisions. This attack horrified Taft, who, though he privately agreed that Lochner and other decisions had been poorly decided, was an adamant believer in judicial authority preserving constitutional government. His horror was shared with other prominent members of the elite legal community, and solidified in Taft's mind that Roosevelt must not be permitted to regain the presidency.