The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-20
FEDERAL SUPREME
 COURT HES|TATES
 ID. CHANGE RULING
"And It Is So Ordered" Has Stood as Final for TOO Years With Exception of But
 Two Cases
By Associated Press

Washington. February 19.-The phrase "and it is so ordered" with which so many decisions of the United States su- by the legal profession not only. of the United States. but of the world as the nearest approach there is to absolute finality
 Petitions for rehearing of cases are not infrequent occupying much the same po- sition in practice before the supreme court the routine motion for new trial does in the county or city courts, but occasions on which the supreme court has granted such petitions are so rare that the exceptions are historical
 Necessity of bringing a legal dispute to influenced the policy of the court in this regard, a policy which has stood since the days of Chief Justice Marshall. A secondary consideration is the fact that the court is always from IS months to two years behind it's calendar and, un- loss optimistic attorneys were curbed somewhere, the most trivial cause might be prolonged almost indefinitely.
 ONLY TWO CASES
 Only two clear cut cases in which the court has agreed to reconsider it's formal decision are recalled by veteran attaches The most famous was the appearance of the late Gen. Benjamin F. Butler as a friend of the court to point out what he thought was a palpable error in the Judgment given in American Emigrant company vs. Adams county. The story Is told that General Butler himself he's itated to take up the question of re- hearing especially since the formal mo- tion had been denied but upon reading the record in the case he determined that the highest American court should not be permitted to rest under the false con strdction it had promulgated.
 If your honors will read my brief, I am certain you will be inclined to thank me-" he is said to have replied when the bench called his attention to the vio- lation of practice-if not of clear ethics he was making. The court read the brief and voluntarily reversed itself.
 The second outstanding incident was that of the original suits over the fed eral income tax. heard in 1895. The first Judgment upheld the act partially. but declared it invalid in respect to cer- tain important classes of property. Wil- liam D. Guthrie of counsel for the in- terests fighting the statute. presented a petition ion rehearing, although hts as- SA@S<S that The i9t well encneh alone"
 COURT CONVERTED To their surprise the court granted the rehearing and finally reversed itself In part by declaring the entire act unconsti- tutional. It was this decision which led directly to enactment of the Sixteenth amendment. giving Congress the power to levy a tax on all income no matter from what source derived. The amend ment did away with the constitutional restriction which forbade the imposition of direct law unless 1t was appor- tioned in each state according to popl- lation.
 The rule of the court on rehearings. as stated by Chief Justice Tahey in 1852 is simple. No rehearing would be grant, ed he said unless a justice who voted for the Judgment, votes for the rehear- ing of it"
 "When this court has made decis- ion," prominent attorney said in ths course of arguing a famous case of the past, ''it is like decree of Venice. ir- reversible: and like the laws of Medes and Persians which altereth not, neither do they change. The decision of this court is the end of the law"