The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-01

SseN@@ NsAAA tS@N SAAO through a severe haZing.
 This would be the easiest thing in the world to do, and rests en- tirely in the hands of the chief justice. Any new justice, by be- ing assigned extremely difficult, long and arduous cases, can be left hanging on the ropes gasp ing for breath.
 Among the hardest cases are those involving state boundaries, and Justice Van Devanter, whom Black replaces, for some reason always liked them. Chief Justice Hughes might continue the pre- cedent by passing them on to Hugo.
 Hardest job of every Justice is passing upon writs of cer- tiorari and showing why the cases should or should not be reviewed by the supreme court. About 900 writs come before the court annually, compared with only 200 cases actually heard, and the job of wading through these 900 writs is not easy, even for an experienced justice.
 But for a new man, who does not know as a matter of routine the exact citation needed, the job can be baffling. 4 Nephew Secretary
 Already there are 45O cases on file before the court and other justices have spent most of the summer studying the writs of certiorari. Justice Brandeis read every one of them himself, even including the briefs, some of which are thousands of words long. Justice Stone hurried back from a trip to Mexico to tackle what he calls the "certs".
 Some justices rely upon their secretaries to do the spadework in these cases. And since Black has not practiced law for many years, and never was known as an outstanding jurist, he probably could use a crack legal secretary.
 However, 1t looks as if the sec- retarial salary is to be kept in the Black family. Present indica- tions are that his nephew, Hollis Black, will be his legal clerk. Hoi- lis may or may not be good lawyer, but for his uncle's sake, the other justices are hoping that he is.
 Blacks Assistant
 While Justice Black has been lodging reporters in Paris and London, his newly appointed negro assistant has had an equally hard time in Washington.
 He is Leon SmallwOod, Q middle-aged and intelligent looking coIored man who has been assigned to be Blacks messenger. Because he is a Catholic and because Black al-, legedly belong to the Ku Klux Klan, Smallw0Od has been the center of considerable curiosity.
 He has been good d-natured about it and obviously pleased at his new appointment, but Frank Green, Marshal of the Court, has not.
 Worried over reports that he appointed Smallwood to the posi- tion as a joke on Justice Black, MT. Green has kept the negro al- most under lock and key for the past two weeks. Smallwood has been given work only in the mar. shals office, and instructed to talk to no one even when he goes home.
 Although newspapers have besciged him with. attempted in- terviews, the result has been even fewer published quotes from Smallwood than from his future boss, barricaded behind hotel and stateroom doors:
 NOTE: Smallwood stood at the top of the list of available col- ored messengers.
 Anti-Klan Precedent
 During the last few days more than one justice has quietly dug out the case of Bryant vs Zim- merman, in which the supreme court put itself on record in the most vigorous language against the hooded order to which Jus tice Black allegedly belongs.
 Strangely enough this decision was written by Justice Van De- vantsr, the man whom Black replaces. Only one member of the court dissented-Justice Me- Reynolds.
 MT. McReynolds differs em- phatically with most of the labor and liberal views held by Black. But 1t may or may not be signi- ffcant that he to comes from the South, once the stronghold of the Klan.
 The Van Devanter opinion was written in 8 test of the Walker Act in New York state by which secret organization with the exception of benevo- lent orders) had to register with the State. Bryant, . member