The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-06-13
REACHING FOR MORE CASES.

! REACHING FOR MORE CASES.
| house. For a couple of hours or
in the morning the work of exam
! ing citations proceeds, the det$
varying with the nature of the ca
| In the evening he puts in his b
work on the case in hand, and if il
an interesting one will probably X
| at it until a late hour. Perhaps
| has his secretary read him the eli
/ passages or the provisions of the |;
or the record of the lower court uI
/ which the case was argued, while
/ pOnders the matter from an e;
/ chair. This is continued until he ]
| absorbed clear ideas of his own
what ought to be the decision in
case. All of this, mind you, Def,
he begins to prepare to write the u.
mate decision.
! Befoae any case is argued befO
| the supreme court the lawyers "A
| required to file briefs, fully settin
/ forth their contentious; and the jus
! tees depend more upon these printel
briefs than they do upon any oral am
| guments which may be made in open
court. The arguments which are de-
livered are always prosy, uninterest-
| ing to laymen and devoid of oratory.
| Attorneys confine themselves to eta
| tions of law and of fact, because
there is no jury to influence, and
/ they know that the stern and solemn
| justices would quietly resent any at
tempt to affect their judgments with
| rhetorical flights or with oratorical
| Explanations for dramatic effect. For
| these and many minor reasons no
oratory is ever heard in the supreme
| courtroom. Grover Cleveland, Bcnja-
min Harrison and others of eminence
have been heard there by the writer,
/ but all of their arguments have been
| delivered in a conversational mono
! tone.
Now when the supreme court adj
| jOurnS for term the associate JUS
tees do not go home, nor take trips
| to seashOre or mountain. On the
| contrary, they pack their trunks, not
only with clothing, but with pend
| ing cases, and proceed to go on their
| circuits and resume their judicial du-
| ties in various parts of the republic.
In their capacity as ci.uit Judges
| they conduct courts of appeals for
/ the various circuits, and herein their
/ duties are onerous as we'll as of great
responsibility. There are many cases
| tried before the courts of appeals
which are left for final hearings when
! the ASSOCIATE justice shall preside. In
| the event of dissatisfaction with the
decisions reached under such condi-
tions appeals may be taken to the
supreme court. Here again is the
burden of responsibility felt, because
the travelling associate justice must
| give TO each case such consideration
that his decision will be sustained by
the full bench if an appeal shall be
taken. Consequently it is exceeding
| ly rare that any decision of an assoc
ciate Justice. presiding over circuit
, court of appeals, is ever oyerruled by
the supreme court. This is a fact
which younger practitioners might do
well to file away in their memories,
for it may save them a great deal Of
time and the waste of much talent
in the future when they have cases
before the circuit courts OF appeals,
with associate justices of the SUI
premc court presiding and deciding
issues of law and fact.
In these circuit courts there are
cases pending in which are involved
many millions of property of individ-
uals and of states, and also cases in
volvinG human life. 1t needs no elab-
Grafton to demonstrate that theSe
cases require careful study; and then
remember that there is trunk con.
tanning a lot of other important cases
which must be studied in leisure
hours, if there ever are any leisure
hours. The cases in the trunk are
for the supreme court, ard some of
the opinions to be reached and writ
ten can be the result only of exhaust
i've research, requiring deIving and
study with logic and careful reason
ing. Some of these forthcoming opin-
ions must necessarily be of great
length, for the supreme court must
be intrenched in an impregnable eta
del Of presidents ana references.
And so the days and weeks and
months go by until the October term
begins. Nobody sees any manifesto
tions of the work which has been
in progress, and nobody realizes it.
even when the decisions are handed
down day after day. SMITH D. FRY.