The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-02
Fair Enough
BY PEGLER

justices ct the Supreme Court rolling on the
floor in, a tangle of robes may be all for the
best if it calls general attention to some
actual r%ractises and prelIdices of this court
which the citizens otherwise might not appre-
ciate. The layman who ordinarily pays no at
tention to Its ethics, manners and reasoning
and never reads its opinions, may be unaware
OF changes ominous 70 him unless he reads
carefully the text of Justice Jackson's denun-
citation of Justice Black and the surrounding
evidence of hatred and henceforth takes the
trouble to plod through much tedious reading.
This court is supposed tc be aloof and i'm
partial. Yet, anyone. who has followed its de-
cisions in recent years csr predict its verdict
in almost any case concerning a union or an
important politician of the union movement.
These forecasts can be based on a series of
decisions accompanied by sophisticated opin-
ions, amounting to political harrangues, which
have endowed this auxiliary of the courts
own political party with rights that amount to
predatory privilege. These opinions, as a Sc
ries, have condoned conduct by unions which
would be held criminal if proven against any
other individual or group. In passing they
have deliberately blessed gross immortality in
conflict with the Ten Commandments specifi-
cally thou shalt not steal' and thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbour"
We have recently seen Congress put to the
necessity Of repudiating a decision of the court
that it intended to endow a highway robber
with the status Of an employe Of his victim
provided the robber held a union card and to
regard his loot as honest wages. Such, of
course. never was the intent of Congress and
it is very doubtful that an honest court would
recognize any right of Congress so to enact.
There have been two CONSPICUOUS opinions in
fragrant violation of the eighth commandment.
In the so-called carpenters case, the majority
opinion held that a union was merely indulg-
ing in familiar union practise when it adver-
tised falsely that Annheuser-Busch was I'M
fair to organized labor and organized a boy
colt of this brewers beer. If such be familiar
union practise, and it is, 1t is for an honest
and moral court to deplore, not countenance.
Yet, admitting that the employer was not I'M
fair and admitting that the union, itself, had
violated its own agreement and put itself in
the wrong, the court held for the union.
In another, known as the cafeteria case, the
court sensible Of Christian morals would have
union practise, as again Ii was, to advertise
falsely that the owners Of a small business
were ~fasclsts. This was recognized as part of
the give ard take of such disputes, although a
court sensible Of Christian morals would have
taken occasion to say that, familiar practise
| though such SANDER may be, it is immoral.
Regardless of it's decisions on the legal ques-
tons involved in these two cases Of falsehood
against innocent parties. the court had no need
to endorse or condone such conduct.
These cases and the sordid opinions holding
unions above the kicAback and racketeering
laws are all part Of a whole program of poll
tics in the court. The dissenting opinions have
been. altogether, clear, vigorous, patient and
d~ignified. However, dissents are but statements
Of lost causes and the defeats of justice and
morals have been consistent.
In Justice Jackson's startling attack on JUS
~. pJ..J. $1,000 ,bo ooooo,1n a. IN an
CRY text that few citizens would read at all
there occurs a really charming revelation.
Jackson Says that someone in the court actual
1y proposed what a decision in a pending labor
case be handed down in a hurry, without
waiting for the opinion END dissent" for the
improper, political purpose of ~exerting an in
fluence on negotiations between the mine
workers and the operators.
One Justice, not named by Mr.. Jackson.
would have used the weight of the court to tip
the balance in favor of a party to negotiations
who happened to be his friend.
The federal district courts, notwithstanding
the fact that MANY of the judges now are
Roosevelt appointees, have been more faithful
to the true concept. In many cases, however,
they have had to decide in favor of unions
and against innocent parties and the public
interest because the Supreme Court already
had ruled in favor of its political proteges in
precedent cases.
Lawyers have become aware OF a growing
prejudice among both judges and the people,
the result of political aggravation and propa-
ganda which depicts individuals and groups
as s~fascist' ''anti-labor'' and "anti-semitic"
merely because they opposed portions of the
new deal and Roosevelt. They try to pick
their Judges while opposing counsel. sensing
the advantage they enjoy before certain biased
Judges and before juries drawn from radical
neighborhoods, fight FOR that advantage. The
result is that the defendant of litigant Identified
with the political minority in a community
must compromise his rights or go into court
conscious that he hasn't the even chance that
American law is supposed to guarantee the
citizen b,t with the odds against him.
During good behavior, the Supreme Court
is inconspicuous and it's decisions and the rea-
soning behind them nay be ignored by the
citizen without peril. But, in its present. state,
the citizen should exert himself to study these
documents so as to know how his chances of
even Justice have been diminished by the pre-
iudices of unfit appointees.
DREAM HOME
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