Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-09

stands a good David Lawrence
chance of having the lower courts
reversed if the administration itself
appeals the case.
This extraordinary situation which
has arisen since President Roose-
welt was able to place five out OF
the nine justices on the highest
bench is causing lawyers in many
parts of the country to feel that
the bureaucrats who rule on tax
cases, for instance, need not worry
any more about being reversed by
the courts. They can be as arbi-
trary as they like. With the ad-
ministration in complete control of
the judicial branch of the Govern
ment, the finding or ruling by an
administration board or commission
is Just about equivalent nowadays
to a final decision.
The tendency of the Supreme
Court to uphold the administration
is so flagrantly one sided, as re-
vealed by the statistics, that 1t
leaves one with the impression that
either the best lawyers of the ceun-
try have suddenly lost all knowledge
of the law, that the New Deals
Justice Department under Attorney
General Jackson is the smarteSt
group of lawyers the country has
ever had or that the administra-
ton appointeeS on the Supreme
Court still feel they are part
of the New Deal when it comes
to the philosophy of taxation.
Administration Wins Majority.
In the last term of the Supreme
Court, the administration was held
by the Supreme Court to be 100
per cent right in its requests for
review of tax cases decided in the
lower courts. Twenty-nine petitions
for review in Federal tax cases were
granted and not a single one was
denied Now it also turns out that
the administration won out in 10
of these cases and lost only 5.
The others have not been deter
mined Evidently the lower courts
have also suddenly lost their knowl-
edge of tax law.
ing through State courts have been
given the review sought by the ad-
ministration in nine instances and
there was not single denial. When
it came to deciding the cases, the
administration won five of the nine,
one was vacated and remanded and
three were undetermined.
In all other cases apart from taxes
where the administration lost in a
lower court, the Justice Department
was granted review in 81 and denied
only 9. Fourteen were subse-
quently won by the administration
and three by the private litigants.
The private citizen who took the
initiative in seeking review by the
Supreme Court in cases decided
against him in lower courts Jared
pretty badly. In IA tax cases, 96
were denied review and only 10 were
granted. But of those given review
and subsequently decided the tax
payer lost eight and won only two.
Nine are undetermined Where the
taxpayer was ruled against, evil
IDENTIFY the Supreme Court thinks the
lower courts know the law
Citizens Percentage Low.
In all other cases apart from
taxation, the showing for the pri-
vate citizen was also very bad. Out
of 172 cases, private citizens who
petltloned were refused review in
148 cases and were granted an ap-
peal in "a cases. But here, too, out
of the "a that were given consid-
Grafton, the private citizen lost out
to the administration in 10 out of
the Is cases decided
Thus the administration is being
granted review in the largest per-
centage of cases in seven years The
fact that the administration is get
ting such treatment at the hands
of what one of the new justices
publicly called the reconstructed
court" is exciting great deal Of
comment among members of the
bar, so many of whom feel it is
hopeless to appeal for justice be-
fore the present Supreme Court.
1t does seem peculiar that the ad-
ministration should be right 100 per
cent of the time in appealing for
review of tax cases. In view of the
compleXity of tax questions now
adays this cannot but cause as
constituent. But while attributing
to the new court the highest mo-
tives of integrity, it would appear
that the New Deal majority on the
court has adopted an extreme eco
nomic philosophy on taxation in
keeping with the revolutionary ideas
of their confrere in the New Deal
in the legislative and executive
branches of the Government.
This trend toward confscation of
private property by unjust admin
istration of the tax laws in viola
ton of the letter and the spirit OF
the Constitution is not surprising
in view of the campaign which
President Roosevelt carried on in
1887 against the then existing Su-