Fool’s Gold: Perry v. United States, The Gold Clause Cases, and The Evolving Expectation of Currency in the United States
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Authors
Long, Jason T.
Issue Date
2025-07
Volume
58
Issue
3
Type
Journal Article
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Abstract
The 1935 U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the Gold Clause Cases gripped national attention and subjected some of President Roosevelt’s earliest and most contentious New Deal financial policies to judicial scrutiny. In a set of decisions that deeply divided public opinion, the Court held that the government unconstitutionally repudiated its obligation to repay World War I gold dollar Liberty Bonds by instead offering federally backed paper dollars. However, the Court also held that the plaintiff lacked standing to redress this constitutional violation. Although the Gold Clause Cases are largely forgotten in contemporary legal studies, traditional interpretations of these decisions argue that the Supreme Court was largely motivated by political considerations of the time and attempted to avoid a conflict with the Executive Branch. Nevertheless, the present article challenges the traditional, reductionist narrative of the Gold Clause Cases based on primary source analysis. Instead, this article argues that these nuanced decisions should be understood as a pragmatic compromise crafted by a moderate Chief Justice Hughes in the face of two warring factions on the Court rather than a judicial retreat in the face of a strong President with a national mandate.
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Publisher
Creighton University School of Law