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j The Supreme Court i Should Be Curbed __ The Senate Judiciary Committee has re- gq ported favorably by a vote of 10 to 5 a bill to limit certain types of Supreme Court jur- M isdiction—-authority to do so being specifi- g|cally vested in Congress by the federal Con- :# (stitution and spelled out in detail in that £ |document. 2 _ ¥i The bill would stop the Supreme Co ¥ from overturning a state’s decision on what lawyers can practice in state courts—the Court having ruled that a stale could not {bar a Communist from practicing as a law- yer. : oo , ; - The measure would take away from the Supreme Court authority to determine what questions Congress can ask of witnesses _ through its committees, the Court also hav- *.. ing stepped into this field with limitations = which could destroy effectiveness of con- gressional committee investigations into sub- :. q version, espionage, treason and similar jfields.' .\. os The bill also would restore to the -=-4 the power to set up their own laws a ates inst bowndaries—a power nullified by a recent Sugireme Court decision. © ~——Ss- gress to pass a law against advocating over- throw of the federal government—a law which would have teeth which could not be pulled by the Supreme Court. This has be- come necessary because the Supreme Court has ruled that the Smith Act is valid in pro- g@ hibiting advocacy of overthrow of the fed- # eral government by violence but that it is J invalid if this advocacy is presented onl in what the Court considers a ‘‘theoretica manner. The result. is that the Supreme B28 Court virtually has nullified both the Smith own previous approval of the: Act and its Certainly there is obvious need for con- in the bill approved by the Judiciary @om- mittee. Yet, in widely separated part of the\country there is vigorous oppositiog to the Wneasure and almost all of it seems to -be built on the same foundationless cry—. | at those advocating the . I. i ees the Supreme Court because thay-hap-"” ‘J subversion and sedition within their jown j he bill further would authorize Con- + aad bll¢ e trying to } pen to disagree with some of its decisions. - ~ A few days ago, in reporting the Senate® Judiciary Committee’s action,«TV news, broadcaster David. Brinkley said that this measure was “dreamed up by Senator Jen- ner” of Indiana. To some viewers he seemed to feel that one should go through some spe-~ cial asepsis, at least figuratively, before as- sociating with Senator Jenner even orally. uch widely known newspapers as the Washington Post and New York Times in the East, the Denver Post in the Rocky Moun- tains, the Minneapolis Tribune in the far horth, and various others of the same so- ciological stripe editorially, have taken up the cry that Senator Jenner or Senator East- land or somebody else has put over the bill ‘because they “disagreed” with Supreme Court decisions. Fortunately, some equally | _important papers—such as the Cleveland: | Plain Dealer and the Los Angeles Times supt | port the principle of a congressional curb orf! the Court, - a Actually, disagreement with Supreme Cdurt decisions of the type which would be curbed in the Judiciary Committee bill is espread and includes éommittees and ast presidents of the American Bar Asso- iation as well as eminent students of con- titutional law, federal judges, and others. The Senate Judiciary Committee bill and the original Jenner bill to curb the Supreme Court are about as unlike as a cat and a dog. The Jenner bill was, to all practical pur- ' poses, scrapped almost before it got out of swaddling clothes. The Butler bill was sub- stituted and now the Senate Judiciary Co mittee has substituted a bill of own for the Butler bill. It's rather af cry to attribute a bill approved by 10 out - i { gressional action of this type—and proh-+ ably for considerable more action in rela- tion to the Supreme Court than is included - SO MAY 26 1958 _ Mr. T. ter__ Mr. Clayton, Tele. Roum _ Mr. ‘Holloman __ Miss Gandy__ >. a 1h eee a) yo DON EWING, ASSOCIAT EDITOR THE SHREVEPORT TIME SHREVEPORT, LA. 5/10/58 Page &§ A Col. 1& r « q_ 27st A A —_—— Lat NOT RECORDE aA WAY 23 1958 ae oe -