The Wilmington morning star., 1944-04-12
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK; have just happened upon the
most pernicious dictum that have ever heard
propounded in the entire career of the new
deal
This is an excerpt from a decision by
Justice Felix Frankfurter, the head philosopher
of the Roosevelt government, who loaded the
new deal administration with his disciples in
the early days and wound up on the bench of
the Supreme Court
Here is what he said in a recent decision
THE notion that because the words OF a
statute are plain, its meaning also is plain is
merely pernicious oversimpllfcation" l have
not read the rest of the decision but I
feel free to take this quotation out Of context
because it was cited out of context by Miss
Marguerite Rewalt, the president of the FEEDER
al Bar Assn. bund of new deal catch polls
and other scourges of the bureaucracy, in an
exhortation to the legal profession to take
advantage of the doubt, confusion and misery
of George Spelvin, American, in his dealings
with "some 217 special courts, bureaus and
commissions which, today, decide upon and
administer various federal laws, directly af-
fecting the citizens and business firms of this
country
Miss Rawalt pointed out with triumphant de-
| light that the citizen had been delivered into
the hands of the lawyers not only b. Congress
but by the Supreme Court through its inter-
pretations of laws and said that Mr.. Frank
furter had sounded q warning against reliance
on the literal language of the statutes
ay I run over Mr.. Frankfurter's dctum
again?
The notion that, because the words Of a
statute are plain, its meaning also is plain
is merely perncious oversimplifcation.
So is it pernicious of you to believe that the
!aw hat II ro1ain1v Co
a bad citizen, lawless person, if you obey
the law according to the plain language of
Congress unless Mr.. F. and his colleague,
Mr.. Black. late of the Ku Klux Khan, Mr..
Murphy, who flinched his duty in the face of
mob instruction in Michigan, and others of
the Roosevelt majority of the court have first
ratified the compression intent.
According to all this, it would be perilous to
the citizen to comply even with Mr.. Frank
furter's own interpretations of the law. For.
although he seldom uses plain language, we
have to use our own poor intellige in inter-
preting his meanings and we might, even then.
go wrong. Some of us who have pondered
Justice Frankfurter's opinions are given to
suspect from the wordy Snuosity OF his ex-
preston, that he is less intent on interpreting
the intention and constitutionality of congress-
ional acts than in maintaining that personal
ambiguity which would enable him to take
pom SlueS ana the 1nluule S1oullu VII olly
question as to defy challenge by intelligent
argument. One of his colleagues, in dissent
ing opinion once quoted a phrase of
gibberish from the prevailing opinion written
by Justice Frankfurter, and said of it: What
ever that may mean" words to that effect.
It must be kept in mind that the. author of
this sinister doctrine is of the most in
fluential individuals in the group in Washing
ton which now rules 100 million Americans.
A, | here is Miss Rawalt, another important
new deal bureaucrat joyously reminding her
|fellow-lawyers that he has nullfied the plain
language in which Congress has tried to ex-
press the will of the people. SO that the citizen
must beat a path to their doors and pay a
fee to be advised how to conduct himself in
almost any contact with his government.
| Conversely, if Frankfurters dictum means
anything. then obscurity, not clarity; trickery,
nc forthrightness, is to be desired in the law
and the Ten Commandments do not neces-
sarily mean what most of us have always
understood the INTO mean. Thou Shalt Not
kip might mean to Mr.. Frankfurter devine
adjuration to murder and the common inter-
probation Of the clergy and laity might be
''perncious over simplification.
| In this shocking phrase, Mr.. Frankfurter
has relieved himself of all responsibility for
any judgement he may ever give. However
plain his language he didn't mean what he
said And the more obscure his language. the
less the chance of George Spelvin, American,
to hold him to his word.
| plain words do not express plain meanings,
how" else can meanings be expressed?
QUOTATIONS