Evening star., 1955-01-27
The Political Mil
Congressional Address
By Chief Justice Urged
Worren Should Appear
In HE Interest Of Courts
The PoiaieoI Mn
DY Gould Lincoln

In the interest OF Courts
By Gould Lincoln
whats good for the courts Is good for
the people. who are primarily interested
IN justice. So the Joint resolution now
introduced In the House and Senate.
inviting the Chief Justice TO address
Congress on the state Of the Judicial
branch Of the Government. should be
In the interests Of both.
In some quarters. however. the ques-
tion Of politics has raised its head In
connection with the proposal 70 have
the Chief Justice take the limelight In
this unprecedented manner. Particu-
larly Chief Justice Earl Warren. It Is
suggested that, in some way. the Chief
Justices appearance before the Cone
gresS VIII make him instanter . candle
date. or ct least potential candidate.
for Republican presidential nomina.
tion ii l956-should President Eisen-
hover step aside. Nothing could be
further from the fact. It Is well under-
stood BY Chief Justice Warreri's inti-
mates he has no desire to become
presidential nominee; that he would
resist even to the point Of declining
nomination II 1t were offered him. In
fact. he would not run.
Not His Idea.
TO skeptics, who appear to believe the
q. o. p. desires to nominate the Chief
Justice and capitalize on his antisegre-
CATION opinion--whic was the opinion
Of the court--it may be pointed out
the proposal for his appearance before
q Joint session of Congress did not come
from him or from the court. It was
broached by Deputy Attorney General
William p. Rogers, In speech delivered
away from washington. It was well re-
ceiyed. Further, II the fear of politics
still persists, the legislation calling for
an invitation to the Chief Justice TO
appear before Congress could NIX his
first appearance in 1887, after the
presidential election of 1856. BY 1850,
the next presidential election year. the
Chief Justice would be SO years old.
obviously too old for presidential
nomination and an election which would
put him In the White House at 70, TO
begin q term.
IN the Is months he has presided
over the Supreme Court. the Chief JUS
tice has had signal success. 1t is no
secret he is happy in his work. He has
become more and more conyersant
with the Federal judiciary and its
problems. Those are the problems
which any Chief Justice would discuss
In an appearance before Congress.
Principal among them Is the shocking
state Of calendars Of many of the
Federal courts. The backlog OF un-
finished cases Is FAR greater In some
districts than in others. In the south-
ern district Of New York. which iil-
cludes New York city. a litigant can
expect to wait almost four years from
the day he files suit IN the Federal
court until 1t is disposed Of. Indeed,
he must wait three years before his
case is reached. During the year
!. ended July /, 1854, the Federal courts
disposed Of 93,l6l cases, but left pend-
/. ing another 1881 Obviously, such de-
laws. sometimes running two. three or
nearly four years, result in grave iil-
Justice to both plaintiffs and defends
ants.
! Many Causes.
I. ~ There are number Of causes for
this situation In the courts. IN some
districts there are not enough judges.
IN some, the judges do not work hard
enough and take long vacations. Some
Of the Federal judges are too old or
too III to be effective. Also. there u q
lack Of adequate funds to pay Tor
needed assistants In the courts. In
one district, Judge, already Ill when
confirmed by the Senate. has spent nve
hours in court in four years. judges
close court all summer, In some OF the
districts. There is no way to deal with
those who fail to work except through
Impeachment proceedings. No author-
ity is placed in the hands Of any one
to deal with them They are appointed
for life.
A Chief Justice. invited to appear be-
fore Congress, win be in position %
disclose all Of these Ills and 70 make
recommendation And Chief Justice,
appearing at Joint session pf the Sem
ate and House, win have an effective
sounding board. Obviously. II the pro-
posal Is adopted. the program should be
permanent with appearances Of the
Chief Justice either ct the opening Of
each regular session Of Congress or Of
the opening OF each new Congress-l1e
would make either an annual or . bien.
NAL report.
While the plan has received wide ap-
proval Of lawyers, judges, members Of
Congress and plain ordinary citizens
misgivings have been expressed BY few
that it would lower the dignity Of the
court and thrust the court into politics
A Chief Justice. however. would d.
neither. He would 20 on invitation and
not as supplicant with his hat In hi
hand. Nor would there be underlying
political implications. Reports are made
In writing to Congress. showing tfe
situation Of the Federal courts. But
they are pigeonholed rather than read
A separate budget is prepared for ths
courts. but Congress cuts IT.