Evening star., 1946-04-28
Selection of Chief Justice
Difficult Test for Truman
Qualities Required in Man Nominated to Be
Most Important Judicial Officer in World
Sharply Narrow Field
Bv RAYMOND p. Brandt

vote, the way in which the court does
its work gives him special opportunity
for leadership. At the conference it is
the practice for the Chief Justice, unless
he desires otherwise, to be the first to
state his opinion with respect to the
case to be decided; he gives his opinion
first and votes last. After decision has
been reached, the Chief Justice assigns
the case for opinion to one of the men,
bers OF the court, that is, of course,
to one of the majority if there is
division and the Chief Justice is mem
ber OF the majority. If he is in minor
ity, the senior Associate Justice in the
majority assigns the case for opinion.
when assigning cases, the Chief JUS
tice may retain any cases he pleases for
himself. 1t is recognized that he has
sole control over the assignment of
opinions ana his assignments are never
questioned. In this way he has an i'm
portant choice among the judges in the
distribution of important cases. It would
naturally be the effort of the Chief
Justice to distribute the work so that
each judge would have about the same
amount of work as the others and about
the same proportion of important cases."
Chief Justice Stone often was in the
minority group. This conference pro-
cedure gave great power to Justice Hugo
Black, the senior Associate, who assigned
the writing of majority opinions to one
of his group.
Heavy Duties for Chief Justice.
Hughes book does not make it clear
that the Chief Justice not only states
his opinion on the argued cases but also
on the petitions for certiorari and ap-
peal. At present these petitions average
about l $50 cases year, of which about
1S0 are set for argument. That means
he and the other justices must average
almost four cases every day of the year.
Although presiding over the Supreme
Court is the Chief Justices major work,
he has many other trying duties. AS
Chief Justice of the United States, he
presides over the yearly conference of
senior circuit court judges; is an ad-
wiser on legislation affecting all the
courts, and has hand in drafting the
judicial budget Unofhcially. he may
often advise the President on judicial
appointments, particularly on nomina-
tions for the Supreme Court and the
District of Columbia Court of Appeals,
which ranks next to the highest court.
Perhaps because he had been Presi-
dent, Taft gave more of this advice
than any of his successors and in at
least one instance blocked the appoint
ment of federal district judge in Mis-
souri,
There are also extra judicial Offices
offered to the Chief Justice, which take
time and effort. Chief Justice Stone
thought himself obligated to serve as
vice president of the American Red
Cross, as chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the National Gallery of
Art. as member of the Establishment
of the Smithsonian Institution and as
chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Several members of the present
court earnestly believe that the Chief
Justice should not be expected to take
these extra judicial Offices.
But even If these duties are avoided
and if some way could be found for
the Chief Justice to delegate some of
his other responsibilities, such as famil-
iarizing himself with all petitions to
the court, the chief justiceship would
remain an Office demanding the highest
order of mental, physical and tempera-
mental capacities. This country has
been unusually fortunate in its highest
judicial officer. President Truman has
one of his greatest decisions to make.
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