Evening star., 1960-06-23
Echoes in the Court

cedlng establishment OF the Civil Rights
Commission, some of the opposition by
Southern Senators was expressed on
purely legal grounds. Had these SEN
atorS been looking for outside SpokeS-
men to present their point of view,
probably their most unlikely choices
would have been Justices Douglas and
Black of the Supreme Court. Yet it
is these two who have now come for
ward in dissent, in case involving
procedures of the commission, which
outdoes in unqualified denunciation of
such procedures ALMOST anything said
by Southern opponents.
There is, of course, wide difference
in the motivation of the critics. The
Southern Senators, regardless of their
convictions as to the legal questions
involved, were out to kill the Civil
Rights Commission. The two justices,
on the other hand, as earnestly as
they support the cause of protecting
the right to vote, condemn as a con-
venient abridgment Of constitutional
guarantees some of the procedures au-
thorized to uphold that right, contend
ing that to uphold one civil right others
have been endangered.
The issue represented was the va
lidity of commission rules which pro-
vide that the identity of persons sub
mitting complaints against voting regis
trarS and other officials, based on alleged
denial of voting rights, need not be dis
closed; and that those summoned by
the commission to testify, including
those accused of violating Federal law,
may not confront or croSS-eXamine
their acCuSerS.
The court majority of seven which
upheld validity of the commissions pro-
cedures found the commissions in
veStigatory proceedings are not affected
by rules which govern trials or other
adjudicatory proceedings. To apply such
rules would cripple the investigation.
The long opinion by the Chief Justice
took note of the dangers to complain
ants, were their identities revealed, and
emphasized the fact that the commits
sion was after facts, for report to Con-
greSS; 1t was not trying anybody or
administering punishment to accused
individuals.
Justice Douglas, for himself and
Justice Black, saw the majority decision
as an example of where men of good will
take short cuts and reach the desired
end regardless of the MEANS; that the
investigation and hearing by the COM
mission are to determine whether GRIM
inal law has been violated that under
the commission rules the accused is de-
prived of rights protected by the Con-
Stitution and the hearings are in effect
a trial; that if the hearings are to be
without traditional safeguards to the
accused the only investigating agency
available to the Government is a grand
jury; that never before has Federal
executive agency attempted, over the
objections of an accused, to force him
through hearing to determine whether
he has violated Federal law"
That was substantially the argu-
ment of Southern Senators. But the
majority of the court as we'll as ma
jority of Congress has now given the
green light to this important phase of
the commissions Investigations. 1t is
probable, however, that the court left
another loophole. If evidence adduced
in the commissions Investigations is
used in the trial of some of those &C
cuSed in the commissions hearings,
there may be another question as to
its admiSsibility. That is a bridge yet
to be crossed.