Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-15
Rejection of Judge Parker
Treated as Vital Precedent

Whatever the opinions expressed or
the rejection of Judge Parker as APP
pointee to the United States Supreme
Court. the matter is treated by the
country as of extreme Importance. The
widely repeated accusation that the
Senate played politics is met by the
equally emphatic charge that the APP
pointee lacked sympathy with the hui
man side of current problems.
What was the basic reason for the
Senate's rejection of Judge John j
Parker for the Supreme Court bench?'
asks the Atlanta Journal. and then
answers its own question, saying finally
The broad and basic reason for Judge
Parker's rejection was conviction
especially on the part of the Southern
Democrats voting no. that the nomi-
nation was not determined by his fit
ness for service on the highest and
mightiest tribunal of the Nation, but,
instead, by political motives Of very
devious character"
Concurring in this opinion Is the
view expressed by the Raleigh News
and Observer, which says. Against
the appeal of a sort of Southern pa
triotism. peculiarly the appeal to State
pride, which drew to him the votes of
the two North Carolina Senators, must
upon the Parker support from the
South of the revelation that his ap-
pointment was being promoted as a
political measure for entrenching
Southern Republicanism."
The Charlotte IN. c. News re-
marks. "One of Dur contemporaries
figures that in the defeat of Judge
Parker there Is a sign that the old
order of things passeth' but it looks
to us strangely as If the old order of
low-down politics Is very much In the
saddle in Washington" The st. Louis
Times rates the rejection as "in the
last analysis due to the fact that Pres
ident Hoover could not command the
strength OF his party" However this
may be-, the Springfield Mass
Union believes that President Hoover
VIII gain strong support in public SEN
timent and the enemies of his admin
1stration in the Senate will lose greatly
by this struggle over the nomination of
Judge Parker and its result"
Many papers are led to comment on
the Supreme Court. Ambitious and
practical politicians have no place upon
that bench. nor should 1t be used as
clearing house for the payment of po-
litical debts" says the Akron Beacon
Journal.
X X X
Equal and exact justice implies and
demands an independent Judiciary" af-
firms the San Antonio Express, at
lacking the Senate's action, while the
Cincinnati Times-Star declares that
appointments to the Federal Supreme
Court are one field where the Senate
should never play politics or indulge
factional or personal grudges." The
New York Evening Post sees in the re-
lection of Judge Parker IAN injury to
the country" in that it "tends to
confirm us in a sectional Supreme
Court" The Atlanta Constitution looks
upon the prospect that the composition
Of the highest court in any civilized ma
ton is henceforth to be accounted
among the spells Of politics and the die
tation of threatening factions" as some
thing to give a chill of alarm to every
patriotic, red-blooded American"
1T Is serious, indeed" says the
Star, IF appointments to
the Supreme Court have to be dragged
through the mire of prejudices and pet
tiness. The Supreme Court should be
farthest removed of all branches of
from the influences such as
cropped out IN the consideration Of the
Parker appointment"
AS to whether the Supreme. Court. as
organized today, Is too conservative, too
to the human side of
,resent-day problems, considerable COM
ment Is to be found.
X X X
"If the large majority of the Ameri-
can public Is to be consulted, 1t may