Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-10-05
BAR, BENCH AND PRESS.
THE SUPREME COURTS OPINION.

How Viewed by tho Philadelphia Nsws-
papers.
Philadelphia Record
A very clear and thorough exposition of
the points involved. While characterizing
the publication of the two lawyer.editors
| as being such as to expose them to indict-
ment for libel, Judge Sbarswood is justly
emphatic in his rebuke of the summary
and high-handed conduct of the quarter
sessions judge Of Lancaster and in vindi-
eating the equal right and duty Of a lawyer
with other citizens to bring to the notice
Of the people, who elect their judges,
every instance of what he believes to be
corruption and partisanship.
As Was Expected.
Philadelphia Press.
The supreme court has decided. as every
well-informed person in the state doubt
less supposed it would, that Judge Patter-
son erred in summarily disbarring the law
yer-editors, Messrs. Steinman and Hensel,
on account of their newspaper criticism Of
the Judge last winter.
The court does not decide what official
misconduct does render an attorney liable
to summary punishment by the court. It
is settled, however, that libel cannot be
thus punished. Lawyer journalists can,
therefore, rest in the assurance that they
cannot, in this state, be punished as law
yers for their offenses as journalists.
Courts Amenable to Law.
Philadelphia Inquirer.
The court could 20 no further than
that in denunciation of the arbitrary, un-
just and, as the court of highest resort de-
clares, illegal act of Associate Justice Pat
terson in disbarring Messrs. Steinman s.
Hensel, who, though attorneys of the
court, as editors of a respectable newspa-
per, and in their character as editors, felt
called upon to criticise the conduct of the
court in matter which was public scam
dal.
Judge Sharswood, distinguished rs he
has long been as a learned and upright
judge, never more greatly distinguished
himself for judicial wisdom and impair
tiality than he has done in this celebrated
case, and the decision of the court is such
a rebuke to lesser judicial officers who exer-
else their lesser wisdom and their larger
Importance, as to serve as a warning to
them that they cannot use their brief au-
thority arbitrarily without paying the
penalty of profound disgrace and humilia-
ton.
Courts may learn from this decision that
less above the law. No divinity hedges
them about to shield them from the criti-
cism of the press. If they would guard
themselves from it they must give it no Oc.
casiOn. Failing to do that this wise decree
teaches them that they are, as citizens, no
more exempt from censure than others are
who offend justice. The press does not
want vindication. What it does some-
times want is protection against the arbi-
trary rulings of courts, to be sustained in
its right to expose wrong wherever wrong
is done or whoever is the wrongdoer. This
protection the supreme court gives it in
this decision, and the victory is not only
that of the suitors in the case, but that Of
the entire newspaper press as well.
A Sound Judgment.
Ledger.
This judgment is a sound one. as all who
read the reasoning and the law upon
which it is based must agree. Chief JUS
ticc SharswOOd admits that if the public;s
tion was maliciously made it was a gross
libel on the judges of the court; but this
was a fact to be found by jury by due
process of law, and not to be determined
summarily by a judge as foundation for
disbarring an attorney. After conviction
it might be proper for the court to consider
whether the convicted attorney had
misbehaved, in his Office, or had
been unfaithful to his oath of
fidelity to the court. But Judge Shars-
wood does not say that even conviction for
this offence would warrant the disbarring
of an attorney, the decision leaving that
an open question. The decision vindicates
the right of attorneys in their discuss
ions out of court to criticise or censure
judges for their official proceedings, now
when judges are elected by the people, on
the ground that attorneys, by reason of
their attendance in court, have the best
opportunity to observe what is right or
wrong, and the best means for giving in
formation to the people.
An Authoritative Precedent.
North American.
The result of this adjudication must
commend itself to all who uphold the free
dom of the press and believe in orderly
Sharswood will be accepted as an authori-
tative precedent in such cases, which we
may be permitted to hope will not be many
in the future. The case was argued with
force and signal ability by Messls. A. X.
Mcclure aud Rufus E. Shapley, and their
arguments, taken together with the de-
cision of the Chief Justice, constitute q
strong defence Of the right, and the prin-
ciples involved in the controversy, as it is
often the good fortune of the intelligent
public to have brought within it's cog
niZancc.
judicial DespOtism ReDuked
Philadelphia Times.
The supreme court of Pennsylvania yes
tcrday delivered most important .judg-
ment affecting the rights of the bench, the
bar and the press and the incisive SEN
tences of Chief Justice Sharswood, rebuk-
ing the petty judicial despotism of Judge
Patterson, will stand side by side with the
memorable deliverance of Chief Justice
Gibson in the Austin case, nearly half a
century ago. Then as now, a local Judge
conceived the belief that he was greater
than either liberty or law, and the su-
premc court was called upon to restore
teach judicial officers that the temple of
justice was not proper place for mean
ness or malice to strike at the manhood of
attorneys. Since the Austin case there has |
been 10 judge in Pennsylvania so entirely
foreetful of the dignity and duties of the |
judicial Office as to dismiss attorneys
without offense or trial, until Judge Pat |
terson involved himself in the prostitution |
of justice in his own court. He was free
ly criticized because his conduct made |
criticism a necessity if justice was not to
be made the plaything of unscrupulous
faction, and tho criticism was confined to |
no one party. Republican and Democratic |
journals, at his home and elsewhere, alike
Of his subordination of the