When the dragon of the Senate tried to tame the Supreme Court
Is court-packing the way to go?
On June 19, 1924, a foursome of U.S. senators delayed their golf game on the fairway of the Chevy Chase Club outside Washington while one searched for a lost ball. The next group of players, led by Dr. James F. Mitchell, asked the senators if they could play through.
Senate minority leader Joseph T. Robinson objected. As an argument brewed, he punched the doctor in the “eye, knocking him backward over a bench,” the New York Times reported.
Robinson wasn’t hurt physically but the incident was something of a political black eye. The senator from Arkansas was angling for the Democratic presidential nomination that summer.
In July, the country club’s governors voted unanimously to expel Robinson, after he refused to apologize. Robinson had to wait four years to get onto his party’s national ticket: he ran as Al Smith’s running mate in 1928, another year of defeat for the Democrats.
The golf course confrontation enhanced Robinson’s reputation as a brawler and …
