How Long Is Forever?

Speaking of Supreme Court decisions on minimal labor standards, Professor William E. Leuchtenburg in “The Case of the Chambermaid and the Nine Old Men” (December 1986) writes that “many commentators even believe that the Court has forever abandoned its power of judicial review in this field.” This attitude seems odd to me. These commentators apparently don’t realize that the Supreme Court committed an about-face to achieve many of the later decisions. Can interpretational stability be founded on interpretational change? Can any Supreme Court decision be forever if political pressures bear upon Court appointments? Cannot the Supreme Court someday again take “judicial notice of the unparalleled demands” of some unforeseen economic calamity in the future?