Evening star., 1944-06-18
A New Record
In D1sSents
BU J. A. For.

The contentious session of the Su-
preme Court which ended this past
week will be remembered chiefly be-
cause of the record number of dissents
which marked a docket of little more
than routine content, and for the pro-
nounced disposition shown by the tri-
bunal to depart from long established
precedent in its judgments
A checkup when the court adjourned
for the summer last Monday disclosed
that in 130 written opinions, disposing
of 149 cases, there we're 191 dissents one
or more of the nine justices disagreeing
with the majority in nearly two-thirds
of the litigation decided. In the 1923
term when the volume of business was
heavier, there were 1865 dissents. A
one-vote ma ajority decided score of
cases.
Justice Roberts, one of the two Re-
publican holdovers on the bench-Chief
Justice Stone is the other-again led in
dissents with 80. He also topped the
list last year Following in order were
Justices Douglas and jackson, % each:
Frankfurter, 81; Black and Murphy, 10;
Reed, 18; Stone. 16, and Rutledge, Is.
Justice Douglas was chosen oftenest
to express the majority views, writing
20 opinions for the court. Chief JUS
tice Stone and Justices Black and Jack
Erot nh 1rta
Murphy 13, Roberts and Reed IL and
Rutledge 8.
Only two cases of outstanding i'm
portance were passed on by the court.
Both were productive of sharp dissents,
and in each instance rulings Of years
standing were upset.
BY a vote of 4-3, the court back
tracked on 75-year-old principle to
hold that insurance is commerce, and
therefore subject to the congressional
regulatory power under the commerce
clause of the Constitution.
In an 81 decision, in which Justice
Roberts was the sole dissenter, the
court specifically reversed ruling of
decade ago to scrap the Democratic
party's election machinery in Texas
which bars Negroes from the primaries,
and thereby touched of bitter out
burst in the South where the "all-
white" primary is traditional.
Justice Roberts, vigorous critic of
the courts tendency to fout precedent,
once more criticized his associates on
this occasion, asserting the primary de-
cision tends to bring adjudications of
this tribunal into the same class as
restricted railroad ticket, good for this
day and train only" -
The insurance decision, paving the
way for the Justice Department to
prosecute some 200 Southern fire in
surance companies under Sherman
Act indictment, was the product Of
majority composed of Justices Black
(author of the opinion) Douglas and
Murphy, who usually function as
bloc, and Justice Rutledge. Chief JUS
tice Stone and Justices Frankfurter and
Jackson dissented, the last named in
part. Justices Roberts and Reed with
drew from the case, the course that
ordinarily is, followed when member
of the court has some connection with
) litigation before it.
z This decision not only reversed
principle to which the court had ad-.
hered since 1868-and in the opinion of
the minority will con1plicate State regu-
lation of the Insurance business-but
once moR ran counter, to practice
adopted a century ago In the court over
which Chief Justice Marshall presided,
when it was decided that no case in
volving constitutional question would
be adjudicated unless majority of the
whole membership of the court should
concur. This was not an isolated ex-
ample, however. as short time pre-
viously the court had ignored the Mar
shall policy in minor criminal prose-
cution.
Litigation born of the war studded the
docket this year, and, as was to be ex-
pected, the court upheld both Federal
price-flxing and rent control The efforts
of the Office of Price Administration
and the Director of Economic Stabiliza-
ton to assume control over utilities
rates as a by-product of the Govern
ment's anti-inf1ation program, how
ever, were soundly rebuffed in a series
of decisions. All doubt as to the un-
questioned authority of local regulatory
agencies in this field was swept away in
an opinion by Justice Roberts, with
Justices Black, Douglas and Murphy
dissenting, as the court upheld the Dis
trlct Public Utilities Commission in per-
mitting the Washington Gas Light Co.
to raise rates.
The first sedition. case to reach the
court in this war also resulted in a set
back for the Government, 5-4 decision
by Justice Murphy holding that neither
intent nor clear and present danger"
had been established in the prosecution
of a defendant accused of attempting
to cause INSTRUMENTATION in the armed
forces.
While the cleavage in the court ante
dated by couple of years the term just
concluded, the acrid tone of the ex-
changes on the bench in some instances
attracted wide attention, since they in
volved Roosevelt appointees, and DEM
onstrated very clearly that there was no
more meeting of minds than in the
days when a Republican majority was
Sniping away at New Deal legislation.
There is, however, this difference in the
two periods A decade ago the clashes