Evening star., 1937-03-10

SOo ~
ATTORNEY GENERl
A digest text of the plea made by
Attorney General Cummings tn favor
OF the Presidents proposal to revamp
the judicial system appears below
The appeal was made today before the
Senate Judiciary Committee as hear
ings began on the proposed reforms.
It follows:
The Presidents plan rests upon four
pillars, based upon the following prop
ositions:
A. The impossible situation created
by the reckless use Of injunctions in
restraining the operation Of Federal
laws
B. The presence on the Federal
bench Of aged or infirm judges.
c. The crowded condition Of the
Federal dockets. the delays in the
lower courts and the heavy burden i'm
posed upon the Supreme Court.
D. The need Of an effective system
| for the infusion Of new blood into
the judiciary.
All of these matters are inter-
related, interviewer and interdepend-
ent. Moreover, they are part OF the
general problem OF improving our
democratic processes.
Injunction Power Cited.
GOVERNMENT BY INJUNCTION.
| -Tsho Drac{dorf n, hic nf
February S, called the attention of the
Congress to the fact that the processes
| Of government are brought to COM
plete stop from time to time by in
| functions almost automatically" and
continued in effect while counsel ma
neuver, debate, and appeal
This situation arises in part from
the uncertain state Of our constitu-
tional law. In part, the condition Is
due to the failure of judges to exer-
else care, discrimination, and self-re-
straint In the use of this drastic rem
edy AS an immediate step the Presi-
dent has recommended that the Con-
gress provide that: First, no court
shall pass upon the constitutionality
Of an act of Congress without notice
to the Attorney General and a. op-
portunity for the United States to pre-
sent evidence and to be heard, and,
second, where the trial courts pass
upon such questions there shall be a
direct appeal to the Supreme Court,
and that such cases shall take prece-
dence over all other matters pending
in the court l am aware of no seri-
Gus objections to these obviously neces-
sary reforms.
AGED OR 1NFIRM JUDGES
Since the Civil War attention has been
turned from time to time to the prob
lem of the aged or infirm Judge.
In 1859 the House of Representa-
tives passed measure requiring the
appointment Of an additional judge to
any court where Judge of retirement
age declined to leave the lch. 1t
| failed in the Senate
With the opening of the twentieth
century similar proposals were again
agitated President Taft, a former
Federal judge, felt keenly on the sub
| ject and frequently expressed himself
with vigor He believed that it
is better that we lose the services Of
the exceptions who are good judges
after they are 10 and avoid the pres
ence on the bench of men who are not
able to keep up With the work or to
perform it satisfactorily
McReynolds Proposal
Not long afterWard Attorney General
(now Mr. Justice) McReynolds re-
turned to the earlier proposals and in
his annual report for 1913 recon-
mended that when any judge of a
Federal court below the Supreme Court
fails to avail himself of the privilege
| OF retiring now granted by law I"
the President be reQui u. with the ad-
vice and consent of the Senate, to ap-
point another judge, who shall preside
over the affairs OF the court and have
precedence over the older one" Attor-
ney General Gregory repeated the sug-
| geStion in 1914, 1915 and 1916 These
recommendations embodied the prin-
ciple now urged by President Roosevelt,
except that they did not apply to the
| supreme court.
In 1928 Charles Evans Hughes, now
Chief Justice of the United States,
agreed that the Importance in the
Supreme Court of avoiding the risk
OF having judges who are unable pro-
perly to do their work and yet insist
on remaining on the bench, is too great
to permit chances to be taken"
THE CROWDED CONDITION OF
I THE FEDERAL DOCKETS, THE
! DELAYS IN THE LOWER COURTS
AND THE HEAVY BURDEN I'M
POSED UPON THE SUPREME
COURT.-More than $4,000 cases, ex-
elusive of bankruptcy proceedings,
now overhang the Federal dockets
The new cases filed about equal the
number OF those disposed of, 50 that
we make no serious impression on the
backlog Of undigested cases.
The last report of the judicial con-
ference shows delay in securing trials
in civil cases after joinder Of issue in
"a out Of the IS judicial districts
Actually the "a congested districts
handle great majority Of the civil
litigation in the District Courts. Thus
the total number OF private civil cases
pending in all of the IS districts on
June 30, 1896, was 1924, of which
22,239 were pending in the "a con-
gested districts. In other words, the
trial of more than tWo-thirds of the
private civil litigation in United States
District Courts is stalled by clogged
dockets
| X
Delays in Rulings.
Further time is lost in bringing
cases to issue. due to delays in Sc
curing rulings on preliminary matters
such as demurrers and motions. An
other source Of trouble is the undue
lapse OF time that frequently inter-
venes between the final submission OF
a case to the court and the date when
| the HnniciNr ic ~, 11,,