Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-23
PERIL TO COURTS
. SEEN IN POLITICS
Democrats Find Reply Easy
to Legal Points Raised
by Liberty League.


day to the future of constitutional
government than to drag the courts
into politics. Since the enemies of the
Supreme Court those who have been
bitterly critical of its recent decisions
have started on that path. the re-
erettable truth is the friends of the
Constitution have now perhaps unin-
tentionally joined them.
The publication by the National
Lawyers Committee of its report on
the alleged unconstitutionality of the
Wagner labor act has been received
with widespread criticism, not because
OF the merit OF its contentious, but be-
cause of the vehicle through which
its views were given to the public.
For, irrespective of the best inten-
tons of the American Liberty League
to sustain the impression that it is a
non-political organization, it is never
theless so viewed by large sections of
the press and will continue to be so
regarded as long as it is dominated
by men who have been active in
politics.
Easily Discredited.
II the bar of the United States
wishes to resist by public campaign
all assaults on the Constitution, the
vehicle for such expression is the State
and local bar associations or the public
forums for the leaders of the bar. The
Democratic administration here will
find it easy otherwise to attribute
lawyers reports such as came from the
American Liberty League as being
prompted by partisan considerations.
And if the viewpoint of the Liberty
League is not political, it becomes, in
the minds of labor leaders, the pleader
for class interests opposed TO labor
That's why William Green, president
of the American Federation of Labor,
denounced the lawyers report, saying
not single labor lawyer or liberal
lawyer was on the panel and that
instead only corporation attorneys
we're consulted. Likewise, Francis Cor
man of the textile workers denounced
the report as "unethical' and i'm
pertinent, as did also Secretary Ickes
who wisecracked about an unofficial
Supreme Court"
Objections Answered.
Now the truth is neither Mr.. Green
nor Mr.. German could name So law
yers in the whole United States who
had shown themselves competent by
winning at least three cases on con-
stitutional law in the Supreme Court
of the United States or in the Circuit
Court of Appeals, who were not at
one time or another in their careers
employed by corporations.
And as for unethic al or impertinent
conduct. this is the kind of argument
that will appeal only to people who
do not know that liberal lawyers
would be the first to challenge the
theory that they have the right
publicly to express their, viewpoint on
legal doctrines of the day only when
they are not employed in particular
piece of litigation to give advice to
o client.
Just why it Is impertinent or I'M
ethical for So lawyers who have had
experience with constitutional ques-
tionS to give their views to the public
and 1t isn't unethical for Mr.. Roose-
welt to tell 200 newspaper correspond
ents what he thinks of the Supreme
Court Of the United States, after it
had unanimously decided the Schech-
ter case against him. is bound to
in IF
of growing Intolerance in political
partisanship.
Powell's Article Recalled.
Nor will it be forgotten by those
who follow closely matters of this kind
that Fortune Magazine, with true
journalistic enterprise, printed in its
August issue long article by Prof.
Thomas Reed Powell Of the Harvard
Law School, an associate of Prof. Felix
Frankfurter, the White House coun-
sellor on constitutional law. In that
article Mr.. Powell waxed critical, and
even sarcastic, about the Supreme
Court, and he had right to do so.
In the September issue the same mag
azine printed symposium of other
lawyers who gave the grounds on
which 7 out of the 10 acts passed
by the Roosevelt Congresses, and
which have not yet been before the
Supreme Court, probably will be de-
clared unconstitutional.
1t isn't unethical for lawyers to
express themselves in magazines of
general circulation, or in their bar
journals. But the trouble arises when
they identify themselves with political
organizations or with organizations
that are so regarded by large sec
ton Of the electorate on the eve Of
presidential campaign. They have
q right to do SO, but they impair
their own effort.
Copyright 1889