Editing Theodore Roosevelt (section)

==== 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 of the United States|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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Istre |first=Logan Stagg |date=2021 |title=Bench over Ballot: The Fight for Judicial Supremacy and the New Constitutional Politics, 1910–1916 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1537781420000079/type/journal_article |journal=The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=2–23 |doi=10.1017/S1537781420000079 |issn=1537-7814}}</ref>