East Stroudsburg

Oct 29, 2023 | mcall.com | Christopher Brooks |East Stroudsburg

In a letter Andrew Jackson sent his nephew in 1822, the nation’s seventh president reasoned that “All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuousJudiciary.” How would that virtue be obtained? By directly electing judges, perhaps? Legal scholar Caleb Nelson explained 30 years ago how Jacksonian populists hoped to influence the body politic.