Cardozo, sixty-six.
berg, Wagner, Landis, Frankfurter, Rosenman and Corcoran.
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
HOULD President Roosevelt succeed in his proposal to in-
crease the number of justices on the bench of the United
States Supreme court, such changes would by no means be
without precedent, except in their scope. The number of justices
has been changed by act of congress no less than seven times dur-
ing the 148 years of its existence, but never by more than three
justices.
There have been in-
stances of clashes between a Presi-
dent and the Suprer ourt. Origi-
nally the court was composed of
six members, but during the
of the clash between
Jefferson in 1801
reduced to six. Un
heavily loaded doc
country was grow
was increased to se
30 years later was inc
to nine. Further exp:
in the addition of s :
tice, and in 1863 the Supreme cour
reached its peak of ten justices
In 1866 the number was reduced
again to seven, ]
back to nine again; I
was at that time popul
of having ‘‘packed”
numerous
the
but i 69 it
ient Grant
went
court to
torians absolve him from any
intention.
Now comes President
with his proposal to appoint
federal court (including
to each
Su-
the
ment age of seventy but has nc
tired. Apparently it is bey
power of congress to requ
tices to retire at seventy,
Constitution expressly provide
they shall serve during goo
havior.
Appointments Permanent.
There are now nine Supreme
court justices, of whom gix are past
the retirement age. It follows
that, at the present time,
bership on the Supreme court bench
could not be increased to more than
15 under the President's proposal
New judgeships on that and
other federal court benches would
be permanent.
then
the mem-
seems immediately apparent
one of the President's
securing the proposed legis]
to nullify possible adverse ings
on New Deal acts by older justices
who have been in the habit of vot-
ing to declare New Deal legislation
unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Charles Evans
Hughes, seventy-five, has voted
sometimes to uphold, sometimes to
nullify New Deal acts; he once ran
as the Republican candidate for the
Presidency. Louis Dembitz Bran-
deis, eighty, has voted to sustain
all New Deal legislation except in
the case of the NRA in which the
vote was unanimously against. But
Justices Willis Van Deventer, sev-
enty-eight; James Clarke Mec-
Reynolds, seventy - five; George
Sutherland, seventy-five; and Pierce
Butler, seventy-one, have voted in-
variably against the New Deal.
The New Deal has suffered de-
feat in 9 out of 11 major decisions
of the court. In at least four cases
a change of four votes could have
reversed the decision.
Up to June, 1935, the Supreme
court had held a total of 73 acts of
congress unconstitutional. Fifty-five
of these were in the period from
1789 to June, 1924. Then in 11 years,
the court held unconstitutional 18
acts
rul
Decisions Make History.
The court has hardly ever ceased
to be the subject of much political
speculation and controversy in the
“hot stove league.” Perhaps this
is because the court as an institu-
tion is unique among governments,
in its function of interpreting and
halting encroachments upon the
br -ir law ~f the country.
“Every decision
of } ' wrote Chis
noted work on the Supreme
ory of the United
les Warren,
as been written not merely
f congress, in the exec-
and on the battlefields,
in the cham-
me court of the
career of
period of na-
35: (b) the
at the foot of Broad
iew York on February 1,
of its justices
ad been set by the judiciary
24, 1789
Edicts Free of Politics.
The present chief justice,
Hughes, once said of the court, ‘at
s it has had the most se-
»8.”" Tradition has it that
rendered
political partisan-
there are
incidents to uphold the
tradition Justices appointed
President Jefferson helped to de-
velop the nationalistic interpretation
of the Constitution which he de-
plored; justices appointed by Pres-
act of September
Mr.
without
indeed more
pretation,
der policy unconstitutional.
history of the court,”
“than the manner in which
been disappointed.”
Changes in membership of
overwhelming defeat. The lame
duck congress, between the time of
Jefferson's election and his inaug-
uration, to prevent the new Presi-
dent from filling a vacancy on the
bench with one of his own appoint-
ees, reduced the number of justices
to five. It also relieved Supreme
court justices from circuit court
duties, established six new circuits
with sixteen new judges and at-
taches, and filled all the vacancies
with staunch Federalists. Adams’
appointments were confirmed by the
senate the day before Jefferson's
inauguration.
The next congress, controlled by
Jefferson, abolished two terms of
court, repealed the judiciary act of
the Adams congress, abolished the
new circuits and restored the Su-
preme court to its original member-
ship of six. Ironically enough, it
was the Federalist - appointed Su-
preme court which, in 1803, upheld
the constitutionality of Jefferson's
repeal act.
This was in the case of Marbury
vs. Madison. The former had been
appointed to a judgeship of the
peace in the Distrigt of Columbia
by President Adams, but his com-
mission had not been delivered to
him at the time of Jefferson's in-
auguration. He sought a writ of
mandamus to compel the secretary
of state to deliver his commission.
The court ruled that the manda-
mus was the proper procedure, but
that congress in delegating to the
Supreme court the power to issue
such a writ (by the judiciary act
of 1789) had acted in excess of the
powers granted to it under the Con-
stitution. This was the first instance
in which the court had acted upon
constitutionality of an act of
and established its right
Jackson Battles Court.
The first time that any c
act of ¢
clared uncon
Dred Scott c:
unconstitutional during the
years of its exist
had
hened the federal
considerably. It had inval
laws made by the states
constitutional
however, it
streng
During
of offic
Andrew Jackson's tem
¢ the state of Georgis
a law of
state to which the Che
held title:
decided this was
division of son
the
dians the Supren
outside its
tion. The state then passed
requiring all whites in the C
territory to take an
giance to the state. When two mis-
sionaries refused they were impris-
oned. The Supreme court issued a
writ of error and declared that the
statute was unconstitutional becaus
the federal government alone had
herokee
oath of
their territory.
The country was growing, and
crowded court dockets made it ad-
visable, on the last day of the Jack-
son administration, to increase the
were then eight, one having been
As the West began
to expand another justice was added
in 1863,
During the reconstruction period
in 18668 President Johnson was on
trial on impeachment charges, his
leniency toward the South having
angered party leaders. Congress
ber of justices to seven. Johnson
vetoed it, but the reduction was car-
ried over his veto. A bill requiring
a two-thirds vote of the court to de-
to pass in congress about that time:
the court would declare the recon-
struction laws invalid.
Grant Appoints Two.
President Lincoln clashed with
Chief Justice Taney when, soon
after Fort Sumter was attacked,
John Merryman, a Confederate licu-
tenant, was arrested on charges of
aiding the enemy. Taney gave him
a habeas corpus to get released
from Fort McHenry, but the officer
in charge, acting under the Presi-
dent's instructions, refused to obey
the writ. Taney ordered the arrest
of the officer, but the civilian who
bore the writ was refused admission
to the fort. Taney wrote an opinion
declaring that a writ of habeas
corpus could not be suspended,
The number of justices was in-
creased from seven to nine shortly
after Ulysses S. Grant became
President. The court, by a vote of
4 to 3, held unconstitutional the le-
gal tender act which was passed
during the Civil war; there were
two vacancies on the bench at that
time. The day the opinion was de-
livered by Chief Justice Chase,
President Grant nominated two new
members, and soon after the court
ordered that the “greenbacks’’ case
be re-argued.
There was a great storm of in-
dignation when the new justices
joined with the three who had voted
to uphold the act, and the legal
tender act was declared constitu-
tional.
Most persons, of course, believed
that Grant had intentionally packed
the court to secure this decision,
but historians do not agree
® Western Newspaper Union,
i
i
i
i
Cobb
Zhumks about
The Drift of Scotland.
ANTA MONICA, CALIF .—
So high an authority as the
Associated Press gives out a
dispatch stating that Scotland
is drifting toward America at
the rate of eight feet a year.
This would be an excuse for the
unthoughted to say that the Scots
always had a reputation for being
close and now are becoming still
closer.
To me, though, the
main question is
whether Scotland is
going to bring Eng-
land along with her
Among themselves,
at least, the Scots
have always had the
reputation of bring-
ing England along
through the centu.
ries. And if
don't believe it
any true Scot
stands ready to supporting
dates, names and statistics.
-
you
ask
He
offer
Irvin 8. Cobb
By the way, I've noticed one out-
standing difference between the two
greatest groups of the Celtic race.
To an Irishman’s face you can joke
about Ireland and he remains calm.
But poke fun at an individual Irish-
man and you are hunting for trou-
ble — and probably will soon be
hunting for a doctor. Inversely you
may jibe a Scot and get away with
it. But just say the least little thing
in derision of his native land and
you'd better start runnin
» * »
So-Called Modern Art.
GUESS 1 must belong to a most
ancient
vanished
not quite
when
indeed, an
It's
enough
I PeCies—
most
I'm
member
species
old
they sh ! }
tands and
was called
it I do date back to
ted, re-
where the city hall now
Peggy
Love Apples. |
where a painting
motely, at least, to resemble the
object it purported to represent,
veo
Hopkins Je
3s
>
neg was
CRD
stages
tives
I lived through the early
of the artis swolt—prim
post-impress
aitramodert ‘
dadaists and so on
on-
! cubists,
without ever becoming reconciled
to the prevalent idea that a
vas apparently depicting a bundle
of laths coming undone
posed to be a nude
or that a spirited
yellow cat having an
in a mess of tomato soup wa
[talian sunset.
can-
wag sup-
dy's portrait
an
Lately I've seen examples of the
latest school — the surrealistic
school. And if the practitioners of
this form of beauty are artists,
then I'm a kind-faced old Swiss
watch mender. They're actually
giving certain of these geniuses
medals. What they ought to give
‘em is something for their respec-
tive livers.
* » *
Uncle Sam the Spendthrift.
\ ELL, we were good fellows
while we had it, weren't we?
We destroyed our forests. Result:
Up water courses. .
We indulged in an orgy of so-
called “reclamation” schemes to
drain unneeded swamplands, there-
by destroying the breeding grounds
and the natural resting places of
emigrating wild fowl so that the
once vast flocks are gone, probably
forever.
We wasted our heritage of wild
game, formerly a great factor in
food supply aside from being a
source of healthful joy to gunners.
We needlessly polluted our streams,
But we're a resourceful race; give
us credit for that. Now, through
speed madness and drunken driving,
we're preying merrily on human
life, It's getting so that the citizen
who insists on dying a natural
death, instead of waiting for some
mad wag of a road-hog to mow him
down, can be regarded only as a
spoilsport.
» * *
Cruelty to Wild Life.
OMETIMES women are almost
as inconsistent as men-—-which
is a frightful indictment to bring
against any sex.
Az a boy, I remember being se-
verealy lectured by a lady for robbing
birds’ nests— a lady whose nodding
hat was crowned with at least four
stuffed meadowlarks.
A few years ago, 1 saw women
prominent in humane movements
and good deeds, like that woman
of the Scriptures who was called
Dorcas—saw these women wearing
each pitiable feathered wisp meant
a cruel murder and a brood of fledg-
of common humanity.
And only lately, at 2 meeting to
forward the prevention of cruelty
to dumb beasts, 1 saw women
swathed to their earlobes in furs
work with, inexpensive, lovely
when done, and wears like iron.
If it’s gifts you're thinking of, use
a finer cotton and make a pillow
top, vanity set or other small ar-
ticles that take but a few squares,
In pattern 5738 you will find in.
structions and charts for making
the squares shown; an illustration
of them and of the stitches used;
material requirements.
To obtain this pattern send 13
cents in stamps or coins (eocins
preferred) to The Sewing Circle
Household Arts Dept.,, 250 W.
Fourteenth St., New York, N. Y.
pattern number,
and address.
Write plainly
your name
Unicameral Legislatures
F tried the uni-
wuse) legisla-
til 1776; Penn-
gia, 17717-
Your states have
Wisdom From Oneself
Unless you grow wise of
self you will listen in vain
wise. ~Publius Syrus.
Morality
Morality i morality; there
about it, in
can't be any dispute
reasoners.
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