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Supreme Court — Part 26
Page 57
57 / 116
O-19 (Rew, 10-26-57)
bait os
. oavy tar
ae ge AN
ae eae
ae ws
” attorney General William
PB. Rogers has his basebatl -
ie bills being considered in
Congress to curb the excesses
the upreme Co are
the result o sort
tators at a baseball game who
shout, “kU! the umpire!” ~
Supreme Court really want
fs for the “umpire” | to stick
‘co his job of watching the
ball and abiding by the rules.
‘pire’s duty to make new rules
‘or to tell the manager of the
‘club, for instance, Just when
‘he can put in
pitcher. They don’t like: to
- when 8 ball drops outside the
foul line, it is a foul for one
‘team. but, when the other
tearm hits the ball into exactly
‘at all. In other words, "the
‘fans don’t want to see the
sround to sult himself. _
; That’ 5 essentially what the
dispute is about a5 the Bu-
of the game repeatedly and
makes, up its own rules that
are then proclaimed as bind-
ing on everybody—even to
the point of telling Conorasa
in formal hearings through
get Information to guide
them in. writing new laws.*.
umpire is. He appears in full
book to go by. In the Supreme
possible’ t6 know who the
umpire happens to be:
‘ Thus every justice has two
Yaw clerks, and the Chief
Justice has four. These as-. ‘
sistarits don’t have to be con-
Sirmed by the Senate. They
ara not supposed to be be judges. *
"Yet they perform some of the '
PS ae el ee.
"work of the Supreme Court
Justices, especially in connes- ~
Déitib: LAWRENCE?) “Tr
ln visible Hig
we e~ icc we weer
- Method. of Choosing Justices’ Clerks,
',o Their Fitness and Power Questioned " -
metaphors mixed up. He sayz .
of outcry heard from spec-_
But what the critics of the |
They don’t think it’s the um- -
different |
.6¢e an umbire deciding that, -
the same spot, ft isn’t a foul:
‘umpire moving the foul line
preme Court ignores the rules :
what questions may be asked |
which its committes seek ta
Also, in a, baseball game, °
everybody knows who the -
uniform and Ke has a rule -
Court's work, it isn’t always:
are petitions to the Supreme
Court to grant an appes} from
the lower courts. If-the writ
- is denjed, there's no appeal.
tt, means a cfinal judicial de-
cision so far as the citizen is
concerned. The Justice him-
self signs the denial of the
writ, but the basic fudgment
which has preceded it. often
comes from a young law clerk
imbued with all sorts of ideas
as to | the role of the Suprema
Court it the Nation today,
| Just a week ago, the New
York Times, in its Sunday
magazine, had an. article by
a former law clerk to a Su-:
preme Court Justice who dis-
cussed very, frankly the ‘role
played by the “law clerks,
many of whom come from
the law schools imbued with
the viewpoint of the so-called
“tntellectuals,” The atticle
sald:: . ,
“Law clerks, then, gener-
‘ally assist their’ respective
justices {n searching the law
books and other sources for
material relevant to the de-
cision . of cases before the
“court. . a .
“The ‘clerks ‘often présent
‘the fruits of their searches to
‘their Justices along with
thelr recommendations. ‘They |
‘go over drafts of ‘opinions
and may suggest changes.
They tend to see, a lot of
their justices," and talk a
great deal with them. And
the talk Is mostly about law :
and cases: ~
“What i more important,
the way to the “Justice's mind
was always open. There was
always someone-—fresh from .
the immersion in ideas that
marks a law-achool and law- |
reylew career—polsed at the
' Justice’s elbow, willing and
able to do intellectual ‘come .
bate:
In haseball, anybody ‘ak- ;
‘ing decisions on the field of
play must appear in uniform .
a3 an umpire and has to be
seen. Th There are RO. _lnviatble
pires.
Certainly “when . lawyer .
‘tion with what are known has argued his case and sub-
as “writs of certiorari.” These . mitted it to tha Supreme
a I et he te, a Se ade hl a 2 oe Bae, al
0 MAY 13 1958 7223
REGO
Hee
Belmont _ 42%
atinla Mohr
have — "right of rebuttal ” arsons
against | any new points raised”. Rosen
by “law. clerks,” especially ‘. Tamm
some of thosn remarkahia " Trotter _*
“footnotes” in Supreme. Clayton
Court opinions whith ‘have-
introduced new material of a .
controversial. nature rere
Tele. Room —
brought. up When the Gandy
itself. was argued.
. former
to breme Gourd Yustioe,
ast” btoremse Court Fines, in
Uni Btates News && World Yy,
Report, said.
“atter conceding & wide.
diversity | of opinion among * Pl
the clerks themselves, arid |
further. conceding the difl-{ . :
culties, and possible inaccu-.' Oey
facies inherent in political | —~
cataloguing of people, it is
nonetheless fair to say that. | Wy)
the political cast of the clerks [| L/ /
as & group wae to the ‘left’
of either the Nation, or the j/ < Aj
court.)
“Some ot the: tenets of
the ‘liberal’ point of ' view
which commanded the syin-
pathy of 4 . majority c of the Mb .
clerks J knew were: Extreme -
solicitude for the claims of A
Communists and other crimli- IREG- 50
nal defendants, expansion of * . [ 4 2 79 a4 ‘Ss.
Federa] power at the expense *
of State power, great eym-
NOT JOT RECORDED
pathy toward any Gove
ment regulation of , une
in short, the polit = 44 MAY 12 1958
losophy now espoused by Oe :
court under Chief Justice a _
Hl WRTcd, ,
Surely the Senate of ‘the
United States ought to ex-"
amine the whole law-clerk
system to determine whether.
perhaps these “clerks” should .
be given “umpire status.” or: - -
at least classified as “as-'-
Wash, Post and
Times Herald
Wash, News > aad
Wash. Star Ais. $
sistant tustices-" Perhaps, in- N. Y. Herald __
stead of letting them change Tribune
from year to year, Congress
should provide permanent as- N. ¥. Journal-____.
slstants to the Justices and | American
réquire that among their
qualifications should be actual N. Y. Mirror
experience on the bench in N.Y. Daily News ——
trial courts, For if the “law; N” Y. Times
clerks" play such a vital part - .ot
in the making of the “su-. Daily Worker
preme aw of the land, td somes - - aes .
thing more ought to be known a ihe Worker
by the Senate Judiciary Com- New Leader
mittee as to the methed of:
their selection and the limita
of their “judicial” a
(Reproduction Rights ‘Ranerved
ad Pa" es “en Ve te he dle Schein a
Date
MAY 5
1958
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