Evening star., 1946-04-23

had been named Chief Justice
ousted Attorney General hit back
by bringing charges against Wheeler
Justice Stone reviewed the charges
and made the then unprece-
dented move of appearing per-
sonally before the Senate Judici-
ary Committee to recommend that
the charges be investigated. He
instigated grand jury proceedings
Senator Wheeler was indicted but
later acquitted.
A sideline activity which JUS
tice Stone repeatedly did not
relish was to take the stump dur
ing the 1924 election campaign. He
most of his speech making
to defending the Coolidge admins
tration by denouncing Senator Rob-
ert M. La Toilette, the elder, who
as a presidential candidate proposed
a legislative limitation on the Su-
preme Courts power to declare laws
unconstitutional.
Revamped Department.
Justice Stone was no less Wig
orous in reforming and revamp-
ing the Justice Department. 1t
was during this reorganization that
the Federal Bureau of Investigation
was given new director, j. Edgar
Hoover.
Although Justice Stone heard him.
self bitterly assailed in various quar-
ters when President Coolidge sent his
name to the Senate for the Supreme
Court seat, he built up so notable
a record on the bench that within
five years he was the member most
prominently mentioned to succeed
Chief Justice William Howard Taft
President Hoover, although a close
friend of Justice Stone, chose
Charles Evans Hughes.
The next II years, before he be.
came Chief Justice, gave Justice
Stone an unusual opportunity to in.
crease his already high stature
among the liberals" on the Supreme
Court. He did so not only in his
but, especially after 1867
by being usually with the majority
in decisions favorable to some of the
basic aims of the Roosevelt admins
tration.
Upheld AAA.
Prior to the 1867 term. he sideC
with his colleagues in killing NRA
On many other New Deal issues
however, he was with Justices
Brandeis and Cardozo in the minor
lty favoring the Roosevelt policies
He dissented from majority rulings
declaring the Agricultural Adjust
ment Act an unconstitutional use O.
the taxing power. He was the lont
dissenter from the decision agains
the gold clause cancellation in Gov.
eminent bonds. but he was with
Chief Justice Hughes and Associate
Justices Brandeis. Cardozo and Rob.
erts in upholding the constitutional
power of Congress to abrogate pri.
vate obligations to pay in gold.
One of his most notable dissent,
was in opposition to the ma jority
opinion invalidating New York
law setting minimum wages fol
women. In that case he found il
difficult to imagine any grounds
for the majority opinion other thar
personal economic predictions.
Not long after, Justice Stone saw
his stand vindicated when the court
reversed itself and uphelf a similar
minimum wage law of the State Of
Washington.
The minimum wage and the AAA
oissents of Justice Stone are FIRE.
quently cited as evidence of hi.
fundamental judicial philosophy
AS with Justice Homes, he believed
that the duty of laying down policy
and defining the general boundaries
of law should rest with the Fed.
eral and State legislative branches
whereas, as he once wrote, courts
are concerned only with the power
(oi legislatures) to enact statutes
not with their wisdom"
Dissented on Child Salute.
Although his major dissents be-
came less numerous for several
years after the appointment of new
justices, he uttered perhaps his
best-known dissent only a year be-
fore he became Chief Justice. In
1910 he was the only one to oppose
a majority decision that school
children should be required to sa-
lutte the American flag. In the case
at issue the children held that re-
ligious beliefs would be violated by
the flag.
The Constitution he wrote, "ex-
presses more than the conviction of
the people that democratic processes
must be preserved at all costs. 1t
is also an expression of faith and a
command that freedom OF mind
and spirit must be preserved which
government must obey if it is to
adhere to that justice and modera-
ton without which no government
can exist.
Il cannot say that the inconven-
lences which may attend some SEN
sible adjustment of school discipline,
in order that the religious convic-
tons of these children may be
spared, presents a problem so mo-
mentous or pressing as to outweigh
the freedom from compulsory vio-
lation of religious faith which has
been thought worthy Tin other cases.
of constitutional protection"
Among those that still hold great
attention was his lone dissent from
the majority opinion freeing labor
unions from prosecution under the
1884 Federal i-Racketeering Act
in so-called "strong-arm cases. The
case at issue involved charges that
a New York union forced truck
owners entering the city from out
of State to hire union member to
drive and unload trucks.
Majority Opinions.
The major opinions he read a.
Chief Justice In recent years in
cluded those which:
Allowed Federal agencies regulat
ing utility rates to limit such rate