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Supreme Court — Part 27
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*t°' Justice Hugo Black had reiatively few questions—aimost dellb.*
‘ ately few, as if he were trying to contrast his restraint with.
ankfurter’s loquacity. But when he did talk, as he did severag’.
, It was to say something sharp and stern, as in hig questioning”
ut Faubus’ “sovereignty law’ and Butler's attitude toward |
‘« he remaining Roosevelt appointee, Justice Wiliam O, Doug: -
Jas, asked no questions at all, thereby living up to his habitual. | -
chariness in making comments in court. But there are no lawyera’:
who are ignorant of where Douglas stands on almost every issue «
before the court or who have any doubt that he will express hia,
views in his written opinions with the same -breezy and drastic
forthrightness that marks’ his whole public personality. Dougias-
is a walker, a mountaineer, a world traveler, a prolific writer of -
j non- ‘legal books—a man who lives with guste and wants others
to have a chance to fulfill themselves, int heir own way, | ~
% % .
The two Truman appointees still on the court—Justice Harold —
Burton and Tom Clark—were not silent in the questioning. One of
{ the achievements of Chief Justice Warren Js to have managed to .
, keep them both in team-harness along with Black and Douglas on
? issues where in the past they might have aired their disagreements. -
: They are both marginal men on the court, Neither of them is |
; brilliant, yet both keep: the lawyers guessing on how they will vote.
b There remain the four Elsenhower appointees. Justice Harlan
; Was active In the questioning, as befite a man whose grandfather
: Shad been the lone dissenter in the original “separate but equal”
1 eases of Plessy ys, Ferguson. The younger Harlan la not the fire _
; brand that his grandfather was and Is unlikely to burn his name
} into constitutional history as the older man did. But he will be re. -
{ membered. for his recent opinion setting aside the conviction of.
Communists under the Smith Act.
j As for Justices Brennan and Whittaker—the youngest members
of the court, who had not been Involved In the original school de-
cision, little was heard from them the other day. But judging
+ from Brennan's courageous decision on the FBI files, and the
’ ! : opinion by Whittaker on denaturalization proceedings, they will
make themselves heard in the long run.
* _ *
1 have left Earl Warren to the end, partly because he is the
' Chief Justice, partly because his role in the whole integration
controversy demands that he be discussed separately. a
In his few years on the court, Warren has already shown
: : himself one of the best Chief Justices in the court's history because
of his shrewd and firm way of holding his colleagues together,
But his friendly manner fs deceptive, since it conceals a vein of
eae
fron. The iron showed pretty clearly when poor Richard Butler
talked of the postponing of integration as involving only “personal
* gd intangible rights” for the Negro-children, and Warren drove.
, over the fleeting unfortunate phrase like a tank. It showed also
when he wondered out loud whether the Negro youngsters’ school
days would be over before the postponement was. -
Warren is today the center of swirling and intense currents.
of controversy, He will need all his coolness and resourcefuine
' and courage to ride out the storms still ahead, and so will Hs
“. . colleagues. I think they will hold together, even the prima don
mong them. It is a great Supreme Court we have today, and fit
not less great because it has had to move inte the vacuum 6f.
, geadership which the Administration has lefh nwo. 20 *
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