Evening star., 1937-05-21
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

President Roosevelts court bill. When
Associate Justice Van Devanter an
nOunced on Tuesday that he was retir-
ing from the bench on July 1t created
great stir, although 1t had been ru-
mored for some time that he would take
that action. The conservative bloc on
the court had been broken. One OF
the four musketeerS was out. Chief
Justice Hughes always has been far
more liberal than conservative. AsSo-
ciate Justice Roberts already had moved
over to side with the Chief Justice and
Associate Justices BrandeiS, Stone and
Cardozo. But until Justice Van Devanter
handed in his retirement the court was
divided S to 4, and that was not enough
for the New Dealers. They called it a
lone mans land" where a single Justice
could throw everything out of balance
That's all over. The President can
put new man on the bench with
out new law or without new consti-
tutlonal amendment. The situation is
changed in the twinkling of an eye. In
the opinion OF some of the Senators,
Justice Van Devanter pulled the rug
right out from under the Presidents
court bill.
Who is to be the new justice? There
are all kinds of guesses. For number
of years, now there has been talk of
transferring Robinson from the Senate,
where he has done yeoman's service as
party leader for President Roosevelt.
He has never been considered a rad
ical-but he certainly has gone along
with lot of liberal legislation. His COL
leagues in the Senate are putting on a
great drive for him to get the place. He
comes from west of the Mississippi River
and so does Justice Van Devanter He
also comes from a State that ranks as
part Of the South.
The South has no representation on
the Supreme Court today at all, unless
Justice McReynolds is SO considered.
He halls from Tennessee. Hughes,
Stone and Cardozo are from New York,
Brandeis from Massachusetts, Suther-
land from Utah, Butler from Minnesota
and Roberts from Pennsylvania. Ger
tainly it does not appear that the North
eastern States have claim on the place.
The Middle West perhaps. If the Pres
ident gives his first appointment to the
Supreme Court to Senator Robinson
the laugh will be on some of the younger
and more ardent New Dealers, like Felix
Frankfurter and James M. Lands of
the Harvard school, Assistant Attorney
General Robert H. Jackson, who comes
from New York, and Donald r. Richberg
OF Chicago former head of the N. r. A.
The President was asked if he would
stick to his proposal that men under
sixty should be appointed to the bench
Qt hic cNnfpranno Sc
reply was that he had recently elevated
some judges over sixty from the district
courts to the circuit courts of appeals.
His answer seemed not to shut the door
on Robinson, who was born in 1872, and
IS therefore now in his siXty-fifth
year. The President has a great friend
in former Judge Rosenman of New
York, upon whom he relied during the
campaign. But it looks as though New
Workers were a drug on the Supreme
Court market temporarily Another
Senator, Wagner, father Of the labor re-
latlons act and a former New York
judge. would. under ordinary circum-
stances, be eligible for the appointment
1t is true that he was not born in the
United States but in Germany. There
is nothing in the Constitution or in law
that requires the appointment of native
born Americans to the highest court.
Justice Sutherland was born in England,
and Frankfurter, who has been frequently
suggested as Supreme Court timber, was
born in Vienna.
Now that Justice Van Devanter has
taken the plunge, more and more rurnors
crop up that other members of the court
will retire within short time. The
new law makes it possible for them to
retire at full pay. Before it passed they
! could resign. 1t was then up to Con-
gress to appropriate specially for their
| continued pay. In point of age, five
| other members of the court are eligible
for retirement, the Chief Justice and
Associate Justices Brandeis, McReynolds
| Sutherland and Butler. Gossip has each
one OF them on the way out, depending
| upon who is talking. The opinion OF
| persons who are close to the court is
| that there will be no more retirements
until the Presidents court bill is dis-
| posed Of. Under all the circumstances
| it is quite natural that there should be
| retirements. Had President Roosevelt
| never presented his reorganization plan
| and the Summers retirement bill had been
| passed. more than one retirement would
| in all probability have been made before
| now.
Before the Supreme Court adjourns il
is expected to hand down its opinion in
the social security act cases. And, by
some of the ablest constitutional lawyers
| in the Senate, it is expected to sustain
the validity of the act. If that be so
there will be another dent in the ad-
ministration's demand for an increased
membership of the Supreme Court.
The strategy of the administration
| supporters at present appears to seek
a compromise for the Presidents court
| program in the Senate, put the substi-
tute through and let the measure &C
over to the House. There they hope tc
be successful in passing the bill with the
| Presidents original proposal, permitting
a maximum increase of the court mem
bership to flfteen-and then holding il
| there. The bill would then go to con-
| ference, and in conference the admins
tration leaders hope for further victory
Whether a conference report could ever
| get through the Senate, if that report
gave the President his program prac.
tically without change, remains to be
seen. If there is to be compromise
in the Senate, it is likely to be alone
the line of that proposed by Senator
Logan of Kentucky, providing for per-
manent court of nine, with temporary
increases when justices fail to retire al