Evening star., 1941-08-28
Letters to the Editor
go
Ex-senator Defends Supreme Court
BY Citing Record Of the Past.

A-SO4AAtOf DVICnOS SnS Court
BY Citing Record Of the Past.
To the kditor Of The Star:
Al to columnists. your paper is a
strange contrast Of fair -mindedness and
intellectual deception. Gould Lincoln is
conservative, always fair and reasonable.
David Lawrence pretends to be conserva-
tive, but he is so unfair and unreason-
able that he can hardly rate as more
than a scarecrow in the conservative
field. His latest intellectual banditry Is
directed at the Supreme Court. In his
view. because the court was appointed
by the President it will disregard the
Constitution and the laws and only
enforce the desires and will of the
President
If there is any place for such an
opinion of the court it would be more
properly found in the courts of the past.
Washington appointed only judges of his
own conservative bias. Adams secured
the resignation of an old conservative
Chief Justice to appoint the younger
Marshall after he had been defeated
for reelection as President, and he
secured the confirmation of Marshall
by q lame-duck Senate.
Marshall held one term of court while
he was still Secretary of State and was
50 busy he forgot to deliver the COM
mission to Msrbury rs justice of the
peace. Marbury then brought suit
against Madison to compel delivery and
Madison entirely ignored the case. There
was no constitutional question before
the court. The only question was that
the case was improperly brought as an
original action in the Supreme Court.
Marshall imagined a statute, objected
to 1t himself from the bench as uncon-
stitutional, wrote 1000 words against
Jefferson and Madison for refusal to
deliver Marbury's commission and then
in 1900 words held the imaginary statute
unconstitutional. Afterwards, in q letter
to Justice Chase. he repudiated the
whole decision. He was Chief Justice
for 81 years after this decision, but that
ended his unconstitutional performances.
Mr.. Lawrence could not see the record
OF conservative like this with the
highest-powered microscope in the world.
While there is much to commend in
the record of Chief Justice Taney,
nobody now will claim that he followed
the Constitution in the Dred Scot deci-
sion. There are only few conserva-
tives left who will claim the majority
Of the court followed the Constitution in
either the child labor or the income tax
decisions
Any fair minded person who will look
into the record will condemn Chief
Justice Waite and Justice Field for
juggling into the decisions the doctrine
that . corporation is . person entitled
to the personal immunities and protec-
tion of the fourteenth amendment.
On the other hand. the names that
stand out for ability, -mindedness
and humanity are Justices Samuel r.
Miller John M. Harlan and Oliver
Wendell Holmes. These are the men who
read the Constitution in their decisions
with human eyes.
It is to the eternal credit of President
Roosevelt when he came to filling
vacancies on the court, beginning with
Hugo Black, he appointed all of them
Of the caliber and type of mind of the
great dissenters.
For the first time in the history of
the country We have court that believes
and decides man Is more important than