Imperial Valley press., 1936-03-01
Editorials and Comment
SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 1, 1926.
News Behind the News
Secret Supreme Court Conferences d.
Turmoil Suspected in Council E.. &.
Talking Politics

Observation-Disclosures may differ among
themselves as to the breadth or narroWnesS OF
the TVA decision, but almost any one CT them
will tell you he would give his right eye-or, at
least a couple of minor toeS-to know Just what
went on in the secret I. S. Supreme Court con-
ferences which produced the opinion
Only nine men knew. But the deduction of
those who best know the court and its ways is
that there was more turmoil among the black
robed gentlemen than at any time previously in
this generation.
Their idea is that court which Sc frequent
" has vbacked at New Deal legislation must have
been forced into bit OF dither before 1t hand
ed down a decision favorable TO the New Deal.
The administrations lawyers including some
of the most clear-headed ones have 1t all figur-
ed out that a conservative majority Of justices
originally wrote an opinion which declared IVA
and the sale of power unconstitutional and that
in the go days elapsing before the decision the
majority was persuaded to change its attitude
with the exception of Justice McReynoldS, who
opined IVA was accomplishing unconstitutional
purposes.
Aside from the long delay on the opinion,
there is evidence" that an original dissenting
opinion was sucn to cause change. The
concurring opinion of Brandeis Stone. Cardozo,
and Roberts, agreeing as to constltutlonallty,
bore evidence that some Of it had once been part
of dissenting opinion
Emphasis by BrandeiS, who delivered it, on
historical evidence that in earlier years the court
had been loath to declare acts of Congress un-
constitutional seemed to indicate a presupposi-
ton that the majority had declared an act un-
constitutional in this case.
In the subsequent legal gossip. Hughes has
been given credit for seeing the light and per-
suading Sutherland, Butler, and VanDevanter to
&C along with him.
High up in the administration it is believed
that certain external facts also finally influenced
the court:
THE definite romantic popularity Of IVA
including common belief in its reaSonablenesS
and the fact that to ruin it would be even mere
unpopular than the decision against AAA.
2-The storm over the AAA and the danger
to the courts prestige inherent in cumulative
effect of series of opinions arousing mass re-
sentiment.
3-Obvious intention of the administration
to make use of 6-3 and 5-4 divisions of the court
to charge lack of infallibility.
4-The attack on the AAA decision by Sem
ator George w. Norris.
pei, and the court guards its secrets we'll. But
enough justices have whispered to their secre-
taries in time past to make it plain that the
court sometimes fights and wrangles like a
legislative body and that a majority opinion may
be drafted ten or dozen times before it is
enunciated from the bench.
Politically. the visible effect you can expect
is soft-pedalling Of criticism by members of the
administration itself-such as Secretaries Ickes
and Wallace-but a continuance Of attack from
prC-adminiStration senators, whose words likely
will have the administrators secret approba-
tion.