Brant advised Roosevelt and Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, on conservation issues, such as the protection of migratory ducks against the demands of farmers.
[1] In the late 1930s, Brant performed survey work that established the boundaries of the new Olympic National Park.
Brant's work reportedly encouraged Roosevelt in 1937 to send a bill to the U.S. Congress to enlarge the membership of the Supreme Court and overcome the conservative majority.
Brant's study of the Supreme Court led him to examine the legacy of president James Madison, who was largely ignored by historians at the time.
[2] Brant wanted to rehabilitate Madison's reputation as a theorist of constitutional issues; to demonstrate Madison's mastery of practical politics; and to refute the states rights interpretation, which denied that the Founding Fathers considered the new country to be a single nation rather than a loose confederation of sovereign independent countries.