The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-14
Fair Enough
BY W~ESTBROOK PEGLER

Copyright By King Features Syndicate, Incl
NEW YORK, June, l3. - The ethical stand
ards that Justice Jackson discerned in the con.
duct of Justice Black may be deplorable to
some but, on Blacks behalf, it may be said
that he well maintains the principles of the ad-
ministration which sent him to the Supreme
Court.
In the first place, the appointment of a man
who had become a member of a gang OF
night-riding terroriSts was an affront to the
dignity and prestige OF the court and the sub
sequent explanation that Black accepted such
membership to win election to a cheap politi-
cal job as county attorney in Birmingham only
emphasized the sheer. Having joined the Khan
for ultericr motives, he repudiated his old COM
rades in the sacred, u~nfailing bond when the
association became embarrassing but only aft
er it had been dragged into the light by a
newspaper reporter. That such a man might
later show a lack of ethical delicacy should
surprise none of his colleagues. On the con-
trary, it is fair to believe that Roosevelt had
well appraised his character and knew what to
expect Of him. The country had learned the
odor OF his ethics from his actions as a sena-
torial investigator.
This is only another development in the sor-
did fulfillnent of the Roosevelt ethical system.
Had Roosevelt had his way, he not only
would have packed the Supreme Court but
would have been able to direct the selection
of preJudiced judges to try cases trumped up
against his political opponents, as certain able
and courageous members of the federal bench,
among them John C. Knox, pointed out at the
time of the great debate That scheme was
generally overlooked in the excitement over
the Supreme Court but it was explicit in the
bill and was frustrated only by the ~resolute
citizenship of men who saw Hitlerism
~ on ocip1 tho rO,1rtS of tho TTpitnd CtafaS To
make sure that partial judges could be had
for these ~juridical lynchings, the plan provided
that only judges appointed by Roosevelt after
a certain date should be eligible for such Sc
lection end assignment.
The confusion in the Supreme Court, itself,
since the packing, has been an unforeseen
development. Secure in their jobs, independent
Of his favor, the Roosevelt justices fell to fight
ing among themselves in a quarrel Of per-
sonalities and vanities too shallow and paltry
to permit OF real Judicial conduct. On two
notable occasions, court decisions leaked and
were public property long before the court,
as a body, announced them and it may be
stated that these violations Of the confidence
of hamber were taken up among the breth-
ern. The leaks may portend a scandal yet in
volving some great financial coup based on
prior knowledge of a decision.
Long ago, lawyers who formerly looked to
the Supreme Court for direction in the law be-
gan to admit that they no longer could rely
on this guide. The Supreme Court was as vari-
able as the breezes and some of its decisions
were not merely political and temperamenta1
but immoral in that they countenanced plainly
immoral conduct.
The practice of substituting professional Cos
sips and broadcasters with little blurbs of I'M
important Information which could be exploit
ed as scoops in return for favorable comment
on the bureaucrats who released this news
was confined at first to vain self-advertisers
in the departments of the new deal. Lately,
the battle of the press-agents has extended
to the court, as the public has seen in the in
creasing discussion Of a disharmony that could
have been contained within the ancient privacy
had the members been so minded. This sort
Of thing could not have become public, as it
did increasingly within the last year, without
gossip from the inside which was unthinkable
In the rast.
But what if a justice did fail to disqualify
himself In a case argued by his former law
partner and then decided in that lawyers
favor?
That conduct would be thoroughly consistent
with the ethics of the Roosevelt rule and this
had become a Roosevelt court taking Its ethics
from it's source. Didn't Jimmy confess that he
wired Missy lie Hand to be good to George
Washington Hill, of the American Tobacco
Company, because Hill was important to him
in a business way? Didn't the boss, himself,
help to chisel a loan of 5000 600 from a mil
lionaire under political fire in Congress and in
the Department of Justice and then procure
Jesse Jones. the Secretary of Commerce, to
cancel the loan for a trifle and flim-flam the
lender oft of his collateral on the representa-
tion that II was no good? Didn't a government
1.u1ver who had prosecuted a dissolution suit
AGAINST a trust then become counsel for 2
bidder on the liquidated properties? Didn't the
S,,nreme Court violate its own rule against re-
viewing decisions q administrative officers to
reverse a learned commissioner, all the lower
courts and the Acknowledgement when the
loser happened to be a leader of the clio,
ordered deported as a communist?
The original smear of the Supreme Court
early in the new deal was ably directed and
handled and the court, as it was Their COM
posed, was held up to ridlcule. It's prestige az
an institution nevertheless survived in the
opinion of the people who were loath to si,s
up their faith. Now, by the conduct and the
political prejudice Of the Roosevelt court. the
! Institution, itself, has sunk 50 low that The