Evening star., 1946-05-05
Supreme Court Split
Shown in So Per Cent
OF Cases This Term
BY Joseph A. Fox

The Supreme Court division which
observers believe is causing Presi.
dent truman to go slow in naming
successor to the late Chief Justice
Stone Is being reflected in about &C
per cent OF the litigation coming ur
Tor decision, check yesterday or
the docket for the current term dis
closed.
This figure indicates some i'm.
piovement over last year. when the
court touched a new high with 23C
individual dissents. It is about on
par with the record for the 1943-
A term.
The courts volume of work is run.
ming below that of last year, how
ever. Another important factor to
be considered in any comparison is
that Justice Owen j. Roberts. who
quit at the end of the term. alone
contributed SO dissents to the 1945
total, and on IS occasions consti-
tuteo a one-man minority. That of
course created an unusual condition
SIS Split Decisions.
With six or seven opinion DAYS
still in the offlng before June ad-
Journment, the court so far this
term has rendered lot decisions
covering 1913 cases. Split decisions
have been handed down SIS times
ana 10 cases have gone over for re-
argument, presumably because the
court was in A deadlock due to
the absence of Justice Jackson.
There have been 4 score of dis.
senting combinations, but the late
Chief Justice Stone and Justice Bur.
ton, who succeeded Justice Roberts
have been most often together
eight times. Justices Frankfurtel
and Burton have been together ir
five diSsents, and Justices Black anc
Douglas of the liberal wing of the
court were together seven times.
Justice Frankfurter has been the
principal dissenter, disagreeing with
the majority 16 times. Justices
Douglas and Burton follow with Il
dissents. Chief Justice Stone anc
Justices Black and Rutledge have
recorded 13.
35 Cases to Be Decided.
The individual dissents this yeal
total 98. with about IS cases still tt
be decided. That will bring the
years case load to approximately
100 as compared with slightly more
than 200 last year.
Along with the dissents, there has
been the usual number of concurrine
opinions, in which the justices
agree on the conclusions reached
but differ on the legal approach
In the meantime, as speculation
over the court vacancy continued
yesterday with no indication that
the White House was making any
progress in reaching a decision, the
name of Arthur T. Vanderbilt, a
Republican and former president OF
the American Bar Association, was
brought into the discussion. Ma
tionally known for his work in the
interest of improved court procedure
Mr.. Vanderbilt, whose home is in
Newark, N. j., recently was named
bySecretary of War Patterson to
head the committee studying Army
court-martial procedure with a view
to reform.
Had Similar Assignments.
This assignment is one of several
of similar nature Mr.. Vanderbilt
has undertaken in recent years. He
headed a committee appointed by
former Attorney General Homer
Cummings to work with group of
Federal circuit judges in shaping the
plan for the administrative Office of
the United States courts which came
into being as the outgrowth of the
famous Roosevelt court fight. He
also was chairman of the advisory
committee named by the Supreme
Court to formulate the new rules OF
criminal procedure for Federal
courts. Several years ago he headed
the National Committee on Traffic
Law Enforcement.
Mr.. Vanderbilt was president o1
the American Bar Association in
1898.