The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1937-02-26
FEDERAL COURTS MACHINERY OBSOLETE
THE PRESIDENT Is RIGHT
THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY SHOULD BE RE-ORGANI-
FED FROM BOTTOM TO TOP
By Fl. L. Maury

If an English Judge were be bold to declare
Act of Parliament unconstitutional he would be mpeached
driven of office and disqualified from again hold
ing office inside of two days after he announced the ruling
1t chds play demonstrate that forefathers
not omscen when they wrote the constitution though
is doubtless Of the greatest legal documents ever
promulgated the history of the world For instance there
provision anywhere in the law to retire federal Judge
or Justice even though he may become completely insane
This brought the attention of the nation years
when federal Judge in OF the southern states did
90 completely insane and remained Judge unretired in
permitted by law to make orders decisive of peoples
tights and liberties for period OF thirteen years before he
died
The President looks at the mperfection of the federal
judiciary from the top The lawmakers and people that they
represent look at the anquated machinery of the federal
trial courts If natural in Montana corpora
ton for than Three Thousand Dollars the corporation
if organized under another state will in nine out of ten
transfer this to the federal court Almost all of
corporations operating here organized under the laws of
different state from Montana For instance the Montana
Power Company is of New Jersey; the Montana Dakota
Power Company is of Deaware the Northern Pacific Com
pany of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Railroad Company
Wisconsin, and the Great Northern Railroad Company is
of Minnesota Countless other foreign corporations that
Operating here could be named The federal courts
have jurisdiction in such is the constitutional provision
giving those courts power to hear cases between citizens
one state and citizens of another The false fiction that all
of the stockholders of corporation citizens OF the state
where incorporated first announced by the Supreme
Court of 1856 sxtySeven years after the constitution
ratified and matter thousand stockholders
of the Northern Pacific Railway Company presented the
stock certificates to federal court and that they
not citizens OF Wisconsin the court would still hod that
every stakeholder of that railway company citizen of
Wisconsin and hold jurisdiction over the
The corporations have advantage defendino fede-
raj court In Montana state courts eoh of the twelve
jury bring in verdict In the federal courts
uuireS all IL to verdict else there hun0
Jury and trial awarded This feature of the federal law
lis out of date It is remnant of the DAYS when the n
were carried from Philadehia to New Orleans saddle
nockets It is of long before the days It
rot caught up with the horse and buggy days.
The method of selecting ures in the federal courts gives
unlimited to pack the Jury to the clerk and the Jury
commissioner The selected for service are absolutely
N the control OF these two men, They meet and without
The result is that large percentage of Chamber of
Commerce members bank clerks and railroad employees are
placed in the Jury box The law provides that panel shall
he publicly drawn from this Jury box for terms of court
but the clerk usually calls in deputy marshal or other
acquaintance and proceeds to draw from the three hundred
names do not wish nsinuate that the pres
ent clerk of the federal court in Montana unfairly packs
Jury but he told that from the various county
nent lists he hicks only AngloSaxon Scandinavian and
irish names. This is unfair to any named Maurv
least because does not qualify as Irish Scandn
avan or AngoaXOn We have countless splendid citizens
With French Names German names. SPANISH
as mine is, Italian Names Weh names, Cornish names
austrian Names Russian and the list hard to limit
The Supreme Court of the United States some Years a
reversed verdict OF Alabama Jury against some negroes
because no negroes allowed to serve on res IN Ala
0aa The final result of the clerks method of seoctio
jurors IS that the jury panels in Billings in the federal court
nave large percentage OF Northern Pacific EMPLOYEES The
present one has the superintendent of the Craof
Sugar Company and the cashier of one of be BIGGEST b
ana insurance solicitors The other result is +af % fo
court has been holding terms and trying rv cases in Ri
LOT proOaoy Tfteen years, and information l. +
there has been but one verdict in +[o fa5I
blllngs In favor of plaintiff and against - .
since mat court opened not dsappointed cnyoEaJ
oVer CnaC SITUATION because that verdict was
ase III wnlcn Mr. Thomas G. Cotton of Wibaux snd 80
ton. P - "Ae "lDaux Flood itiga-