The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-04-26
JUSTICE HOLMES ON COURTS

! JUSTICE HOLMES ON COUhlS.
Associate Justice Holmes Of the q. ;.
Supreme Court recently made some OBJ
servatious at private dinner in New
York that have attracted much atten.
tion throughout the country. He spoke
of the ebullition of popular feeling
against courts. which must be charged
largely to Colonel Roosevelt's campaign
Of last year, and recognizes the
amenability OF the courts to criticism.
He admitted freely that the proceed
lings and judgments of the courts were
subject to popular objection or approval
as the case might be, in each case
the liberty of the individual citizen
guiding his Judgment as to whether ne
would approve or condemn.
Justice Holmes held that the attacks
ON the courts are merely an expression
of the unrest that Is characteristic OF
our present changing conditions, and
that since law and order have been so
we'll maintained in this country that
ne do not have a sense OF what So
ciety would be without the enforcement
OF law and order. there are those who
| talk as though law and order were
natural conditions that attach TO civili'
zation and that they would he pre-.
served Just as well without the courts
as with them. That this is fallacy,
however, Justice Holmes plainly
pointed ont, and everyone on mo
ment's consideration will agree with
him.
At the same time, we do not attach
as much Importance to the complaints
against the courts as Justice Holmes
seems TO attach 20 them. He did not
consider. however. that this feeling
against the courts was anything more
than a temporary ravness Of the pub
lie mind, and that when the sober
sense OF the country was brought to
bear upon the question, the same old
love of liberty and Of impartial,
fair. and independent courts that had
always characterized the people Of our
race would still maintain its unques-
toned ascendauce.
In this connection we would remind
the learned Justice that the real at
tacks upon courts and Judges, those at
tacks that count and that leave a
permanent impression upon the public
mind. are found in the divergence of
views among the courts themselves.
When the Supreme Court OF the United
States, for example. will consider such
question as the validity Of the income
tax under the Constitution before the
recent amendment, and that court
will divide as evenly as a court Of nine
members can divide. FIVE against the
validity OF such tax and four in sup
port OF it, the feeling in the public
mind cannot be repressed that perhaps,
liz there were higher tribunal yet,
composed, say, Of three yet abler
lawyers, If such we're possible, 1T might
reasonably be expected that two Of
those judges would affirm the validity
Of the income tax, especially when as
the case was, the deciding vote in the
court against it was given by a judge
who had frequently expressed himself
in support of the validity of the tax,
but who changed his mind in the course
OF the argument and the consideration
Of the case
Again, when we consider the green
back case, where the court completely
shifted its ground, holding at one time
that the issue of legal tender notes
| by the United States was illegal, and
at another time that it was legal; the
public, considering this sort of thing,
is not apt TO believe that the law is
an exact science. Still, the consensus
of Judgment is that the Supreme Court
of the United States is as near in
fallible on legal question as human
! minds can be. and the public submits
quietly 70 whatever decision the Su-
preme Court makes. being convinced
that this decision is well grounded in
reason, and that on close questions it is
simply matter Of disposition or make
up OF mind rather than of any absolute
Ilv unsssailable demonstration such as
might be available in mathematics. that
controls the final decision
If Judges of courts could more gen
orally and more exactly agree upon
their Interpretation Of tho law. and
could dispose Of their business With
more dispatch, there would be practi.
eally no opposition 10 courts and court
procedure in any part Of the United
States.
NEW YORK'S BIG SCALE.