Franklin Roosevelt enters office with a mandate to confront the Great Depression, and at first, the Supreme Court appears willing to give reform room to work. In Nebbia v. New York, Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell, and Perry v. United States, the justices uphold emergency economic measures and loosen constitutional restrictions that had long protected contracts and property rights.

That cooperation proves to be a false dawn. Challenges involving oil production, railroad pensions, farm mortgage relief, independent agencies, and New York’s now-famous “sick chickens” produce a devastating series of defeats for the administration. The crisis culminates in Schechter Poultry, when a unanimous Court strikes down the National Industrial Recovery Act, the signature program of the First New Deal.  ...