Evening star., 1951-12-27
The Political Mill
Vinson Should Come Out
In Open on Nomination
Politics Impineing on Federal
Judiciary in Lost 20 Years
Bv Gould Lincoln

By Gould Lincoln
Chief Justice Fred NJ Vinson could do
the Supreme Court and the Federal
judiciary generally incalculable good by
merely stating he has no interest in a
presidential nomination and would not
accept one., Politics, however, has i'm
.pinged on the Federal judiciary to a
greater degree in the last score of years.
The ipne classic example of earlier years
was the nomination of the then Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court, Charles
Evans Hughes, by the Republican Ma.
tional Convention of 1915.
Not only has Chief Justice Vinson been
widely heralded as President TrumanS
selection for the Democratic nomination
next year-if the President himself does
not choose to run-but another member
OF the Supreme Court. Associate Justice
William @. Douglas. has for years had
following among the old Roosevelt New
Dealers who have worked for his nomi-
nation for President Justice Douglas has
never publicly urged that he be not con-
sldered for this most political of all NOM
nations. Indeed. in 1948. it looked as
though he might be considered, and he
was. it was reported at the time, offered
the vice presidential nomination-wfich
he turned down.
Appeared Of No Value Then.
1t may be mentioned in passing that
at that time the Democratic vice presi-
Dental nomination-on a ticket with
President Truman-appeared of no value
whatever. Yet had Justice Dougles ac-
cepted, he would now be Vice President.
successfully launched in politics and per-
maps hopeful of greater prize In 1914.
Justice Douglas was coupled with the
then Senator Truman of Missouri in a
letter written by President Roosevelt
declaring either man acceptable as vice
presidential nominee.
Chief Justice Vinson has been in and
out OF the Federal bench before reach
ing his present eminence. In 1898,
when he had been a member of the
House of Representatives from Ken
lucky for many years, the late President
Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him as
sociate justice of the United States
Court Of Appeals for the District of CO.
lumbia. The late Chief Justice Harlan
Fiske Stone appointed him chief Judge
OF the United States Emergency Court
OF Appeals and he held both offices
until in 1943. President Roosevelt took
him of the bench and made him Direc-
tor OF Economic Sterilization, then Fed
eral Loan Administrator President
Truman appointed him Secretary of the
Treasury in 1945. and less than a year
later Chief Justice.
The Federal Bench, and particularly
the Supreme Court of the United States.
should be kept as far aloof from parti-
san politics as possible-unless politics
is to govern Justice" To make ap-
pointment to the bench a steppingstone
to political preferment is not the best
way to accomplish that end.
Unwritten Law on Issues.
An unwritten law has kept Federal
judges mum on political issues and.
usually on political candidates. More
recently this unwritten law has been
honored, in a number of cases. in the
breach. It is refreshing, therefore, to
learn that Federal Judge Thomas r.
Murphy of New York has declined to
leave the bench, even temporarily, to
take decidedly political commission.
The principal reason assigned is that
ne believed the Federal bench should
not be invaded to fill extra judicial Jobs.
He was, according to reliable reports.
urged by President Truman to head q
board or commission to clean up and
clean out corruption in the executive
branch of the Federal Government.
Another example of tampering with
the Supreme Court came during the
Second World War. when President
Roosevelt. who had appointed him to
that court, took Gov. James F. Byrnes Of
South Carolina off the bench to make
him kind of assistant president for
the conduct OF war mobilization and ef-
Tort. Later. it was reported. Mr. Byrnes
believed that he was to be given tho
Democratic vice presidential nomination
In l944-which he was not.
Too often, appointments to the Fed.
eral bench have been mere rewards for
political support. This unfortunately has
happened to the Supreme Court as well
as to the lower courts.