Evening star., 1946-04-27
Trumun to Determine
Complexion of Court
LEFT" or Fright" Appointment
Will Upset Present Balance
BY Jay G.. Harden

Will Upset Present Balance
e.. BY Jay G. Hayden
However President Truman fills the
vacancy created by the death of Chief
Justice Harlan F. Stone, his action
seems certain to do more than anything
heretofore to fix the complexion-con-
servative or radical-of his administra-
ton.
This is so because Stone, during all
the 1944-5 session, maintained a pre-
carious balance in court otherwise
tending to deadlock. 1t may be
misnomer to call any of the Demo-
cratic justices conservative" since
all were catalogued as tried-and-true
New Dealers at the time of their ap-
pointment. But some of them quite
definitely are more leftist than others,
and conflicts of personal temperament,
especially between Justices Black and
Frankfurter, have accentuated differ
ences of legal theology.
Broadly, the left wing in the court
is headed by Black and includes Justices
Douglas, Murphy and Rutledge.
The four justices who last year, in
clined more and more to line up in op-
position to the above quartet were
Frankfurter, Jackson, Reed and Roberts.
Resignation of Justice Roberts and
appointment in his place of another
Republican, Harold H. Burton, did not
materially change the lineups, but it
has been affected greatly by absence of
Justice Jackson during the entire 1856
term. The conservative wing def
initely was weakened, but the four
leftists also were impotent except when
they could induce the chief justice or
one of the four other associate justices
to side with them.
Four-to-Four Split.
The result is shown in the fact that
Is cases this year have been set for
re-argument because the court split
four to four in attempts to decide them.
1t follows, therefore, that the new
member now to be named is bound to
tip the balance one way or the other
between the conflicting groups, and so
is the choice of Chief Justice calcu-
lated to influence this division.
The Presidents choice may be limited
by the pressure of precedent for ap-
pointment of Republican, which is
even stronger in the present instance
than when he selected Burton. Then
there was only one Republican member
of the court but he was Chief Justice
Now the only remaining Republican is
at the foot of the list of associate JUS
tices.
Never since American political party
| lines became distinguishable has the
bipartisan judicial tradition been so
near to extinction, not only in the Su-
| preme Court but in all other Federal
courts
The logical expectation Is that Mr..
Truman will name a Republican as
! associate justice, thus leaving himself
no recourse but to advance one of the
present associates to the chief Justice
ship.
| The runnerup at the time Burton was
appointed was said to be Robert P.
| Patterson, present Secretary OF War.
| but he scarcely fills the bipartisan bill
since he has been a registered Democrat
ever since he Joined the administration
of President Roosevelt.
Eligible Republicans.
| The bona flde Republicans counted a
! most eligible are Senators Ferguson Of
Michigan. Austin of Vermont and Morse
of Oregon, and two present judges Of the
United States Circuit Court of Appeals
| John J. Parker of North Carolina and
Orie L. Phillips Of Colorado
Parker, appointed to the Supreme
| Court by President Hoover in 1880, was
rejected by the Senate because of the
combined opposition by organized labor
and Negroes. Since then, however
Parker's opinions have placed him as
one of the ablest and most forward
looking jurists in the country. He Ger
tainly would be confirmed by the Senate
today. He is now serving as a deputy
| judge OF the Nuremberg court, by ap-
! pointment of President Truman.
Chiefly because they have been found
more often on the majority side than
any other present members of the court,
Justices Jackson and Reed have been
tagged as most likely to land in the
chief justiceship. Already, however,
left-wing elements in President Tru-
mans support are cranking up booms
for both Justices Black and Douglas
on the ground that these two are and
Jackson and Reed are not, sufficiently
| identified as devotees OF the New Deal
creed
The battle is just beginning, but all
signs indicate it will develop to great
proportions unless the President acts
quickly.