Reader Ad Slot
Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
Supreme Court — Part 27
Page 22
22 / 83
a
‘
Of19 (Rev. 2-16-58)
_ eo
Tee.
rae SUPREME cop meee
‘ Prom 11% eal with the 65th Congress .
_with its powers intact. But it was a near
thing, as close ag one of the Court's S44
.. decisions, 4.
After three frantic days and nights of
> debate during the final week of the ses-
- Shon, the Senate killed the whole pack-
age of bills designed to curb or reverse
the Court, But the close votes showed.
’ the extent of anti-Court feeling which
., bas spread through Congress during
' the last four years.
i: The Jenner- Butler bill to restrict the
i Court’s review power was killed by the
slender margin of 49-41. A drastic antl-
' Court states’ rights bill known &
which had passed the House 241- as
pigeonholed by the Senate by just one .
“vote, 41-40, ; ;
THE CONGRESSIONAL attack on
. the Court has been building ip for four
years. It started with Southern anger at
the school segregation decision in 1954.
It gained support during the last two
years from conservative Republicans
disturbed by decisions upholding indi-
* vidual rights in Communist cases.
By this year, the coalitioh was strong
” enough to pry bills out of committee |
and force floor action in both Houses.
They didn't have the votes to pass a bill,
but they undoubtedly will ty ag
next year.
eee, yee a
Court Squeaked, Past—Thei
a RS CU oe an
a 7 By Richard E. ar hard’ L. Lyons, . State Department 1 reyulstions denying
The Court fight was embodied in four” :
‘bills which made. varying degrees of:
rogress but were all buried together:
in. the Senate in the closing days. Twa’
relatively limited bills would have re-i
vived state anti-sedition laws struck
own by the Steve Nelson casé, and
ceeeuteg” the Mallory decision on the
power of Federal police to question
suspects before arraignment. The méa-
jor assaults were contained in the Jen
ner-Butier bill and HR cts or i
_SEN, WILLIAM E. JENNER Gtina)
introduced his bill in 1957 after the. :
Court had handed down a series of de-. 7-
cisions with tities such as Nelson, which
held that the Federal Government had
re-empted the field of prosecuting { i
subversion against the United States & e
and that the states muat say out; Wat- 4:
kins, which held that a congressional
committee must tell « witness the per % be
tinence of questions; Konigsberg, which 4
held that a state could not bar a lawyer:
from practice solely for refusal to tegtl~
fy about Communist affillation,
’ Jenner told the Senate that these de.
“cisions and others have “Just about de
molished” the Nation’s defenses against |
Communist subversion.
His proposed solution was a bill which *
would have stripped the Court of Its au-
thority to review almost all cases in the
security-subversion field. This wouldn't .
have reversed the decisians Jenner was ™
In considerable part, the Court fight, upset about, but it might have encour-
was an afigry emotional outburst
against decisions Congressmen didn't
like, But there also was serious concern
*. among some moderate members that
the Court was going too far in various
ways—that lt was making law instead of
simply interpreting it ang was invading
gtates’ rights, .
aged lower courts to do so. =—s«- My
The Justice Department, the: Amer- |
fcan Bar Association and a host of law
achool deans and leading lawyers pro- |
tested, that the bill would create “legal ;
chaos” by removing the final appeal 4
_ which Yives the law uniformity.
Jenner's bill sailed through the Sen- F
Le
bIt
* Court’s power. Congress. acted then not Butler's changes, and when the bill vu
, as the result of a decision, but to pre- sent to the floor in May the only part of |
‘ vent one. It feared that if the Court the Jenner bill left was the section
CRITICISM OF the Supreme Court ate Internal Security Subcommittee but
is nothing new. Most strong Presidents was changed in the parent Judiciary .
have quarreled ¥ with it. Franklin D. Committee by Sen. John Marshall |
i cmmare re emmetme in itn Datlae BAAN Tastee nf natite ee ne
Roosevelt tried ‘tar Fevalip its member: Butler Voha.. sa0stéad or Cutung Oa
. ship 21 years ago because the Court the Court's review power, he suggested ;
. Was killing his New Deal. But rarely changing existing
. has Congress gone so far. Only once, effects of various decisions.
ws to reverse the 4
90 years ago, hag Congress limited the The Committee adopted most of i
¥
were permitted to rule on Acertain case taking from the Court lis power to re- :
it might invalidate one of the Recon- view cases involving lawyers refused
; struction Acts. * admission to state practice. The Com-
' There have been some suggestions mitiee felt that states should be the -
‘ that even though the bills failed this final Judge of who practiced in their
year, the criticism might cause the courts. Opponents said that this would '
Court to trim its sails, at least try hard- permit states to bar lawyers of any race
er to avoid 5-4 decisions. That hasn't or other special class. - >
. been apparent yet. While the Jenner« With Butler’s changes, the bill also’
Butler bill was awaiting Senate action would make congressional committees b
lagt_ June, 5.
the Court threw ont, 5-4, the f Anal judge of
e. .. ae ae A Lat ee a aa ae ate = alee a’ + Pagid
of the he _Dertinnse. of
DU SEP.17 1958 7 124
REC- 50
Lt ATS She
NOT RECORD?)
167 SEP 11 1966
rag
Purso
Rosen
Tamm
won 3
Toe. Room 4
Holloman —_.
Gandy
f : F
.
“ ™«
AV s cy
rie
mo
Wash. Post and &
Times Herald
Wash, News
Wash, Star
N.Y. Herald
Tribune
N. Y. Journal-____
American
N. Y. Mirror
N. Y. Daily Newe —_
N. Y. Times —.__.__
Daily Worker
The Worker
New Leader
as) :
ee oe | Se
pi ee
Reveal the original PDF page, then click a word to highlight the OCR text.
Community corrections
No user corrections yet.
Comments
No comments on this document yet.
Bottom Reader Ad Slot
Bottom Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
Continue Exploring
Agency Collection
Explore This Archive Cluster
Broad Topic Hub
Topic Hub
letter
bureau
Related subtopics
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic