The Washington herald., 1916-01-30
Brandeis and the Supreme Beach.

II some one in the confidence OF the President
had announced forty-egbt hours ago that the
nomination of Louis D. Brandeis as an associate
justice Of the United States Supreme Court would
be sent to the Senate he would have won few
hours of recognition as an original jester. But
the thing has been done, and while the country
IS recovering its BREATH Senators who are to de-
eide whether or not Mr.. Brandes is to become a
are in conference seeking courage to look situ-
alton they had never dreamed of squarely in the
face. There are only three instances recorded in
the last half century of the country's history in
which the Senate failed to confirm an appointment
to the Supreme Court, nor is there record of any
man being nominated against whom so many OBJ
jections could be raised as were instantly sug-
gested when Mr.. Brandeis' appointment was an
nounced He is described as radical to the verge
OF socialism, as uncompromsing foe of capital
as a crusader demanding for the individual wage
Garner rights superior to those accorded the cor
poration by law custom, and theorist seek
ing to establish his own idea of the millennium
in instaIlments. Such qualities and ambitions are
difficult to associate with the calm, judicial at
mosphere of the Supreme Court from whence
emotion is expelled by the letter and the spirit of
the law, the Constitution and an even, answering
justice. And besides it is even denied that Mr..
Brandeis is Democrat though the President had
promised to appoint none other.
No achievement aim disclosed by Mr.. Bran
des' career up to the present time may be set
down qualifying him for the place in which Pres
ident Wilson would put him; yet he is brilliant
lawyer and advocate and his honor and integrity
are safe from assault His vision is broad and his
thought incisive; he has fought with the vgor and
sincerity of knight OF old for the welfare of
humanity. If his is a judicial temperament he has
successfully concealed it in the role he has chosen
up to now; and yet how any one say with GER
tainty that he will not, upon entering the Supreme
Court, leave outside his own ideas of what the
Constitution and the laws ought to provide and
devote himself solemnly to the task of discover
ing what they do provide? Always striving to con-
vince sway judges. he has never been a Judge
of anything. and what he may do as a Judge of
judges is beyond conjecture. His past record is
the only guide, and study of it breeds only ap-
prehenson. .t
President Wilson's motive in appointing Mr..
Brandeis is inscrutabe and hence beyond ntelli-
gent discussion. There are Democrats in the
country unburdened by Mr.. Brandeis' apparent dis
qualifications, equalling him in intelligence and in
tegrity, endowed with the judicial temperament
and equipped from long experience on the bench,
but the President chose to ignore them He is
asking the Senate to sanction dubious and un-
necessary experiment which will impure the coun-
try if it fails and cannot be abandoned. On
both sides of the Senate there are men who viii
subscribe to it, just they would subscribe to
anything designed to upset the established ORDER
but they will be opposed by statesmen whose faith
in and reverence for the Supreme Court will i'm
pei them to cast precedent and every other con-
sideration aside and resist to the last the placing
of unknown and unseasoned timber in the nations
buwark.