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nt iio By Mary. Spargo Vigirous sand ay Se the present “tendency” of extent as “to shake confidence in. the consistency of decision and | leave the courts below on an un- | charted sea of doubt and difficul was disclosed yesterday in an opin- ‘fon written by Justice Owen 4. no ol Justice Felix Frankfurter joined in Roberts’ opinion, which cited > cisions concerning the Jehovah ' ‘Witness sect, The dissenting opinion referred ‘to a “modern instance” of mem- bers of the court making a public announcement of a change of views, Murphy and Douglas revealed that they had changed their minds on the Jehovah Witness flag salute Early last month Justice Black wrote a concurring opinion solely 'devoted to taking Issue with the! dissenting from a majority opinion. ' Black was joined by Murphy. The split attracted more than usual at- tention becaused all three Justices —Black, Murphy and Frankfuter— wire appointed to the bench by President Roosevelt and were re- girded as a ‘liberal team” which wuld work together. The strongly worded dissent . oy Justice Roberts criticizing the lack fed fonsistency fm the esurt was ee ae —y VM Oe Seconded by Frankfurter berts Says Court Flipflops fusing to Lower Tribunals upreme Court ! -to disregard precedent to such am the court’s Sipflops on various de- « with a citation referring to an’ opinion in which Justices Black, | reasons given by Frankfurter for | JUSTICE ROBERTS handed down Monday in an ad- miralty ease (Mabnich y. The Southern Sieamsgip Co.3, Justice Roberts charged that the court's majority opinion nullified an ear- Her decision of the‘Supreme Coprt “which hag stood unquestioned |for 16 years.” “The evil resulting from oypr- ruling earlier considered decisjéus must be evident,” Justice Robert 5, opinion said. “In the present case, the court | below naturally felt bound to tol- } 1 ee sor 2 1944 / Mr. Toleon_ 4 3 Mri B.A. Tat ir. Sigae_¥ 1 ' Got fey f ane ile ‘dow and eppiy the law as cleariy r 4s anfjounced by this court. If Mti- NPS - a and lower Federal cé ” ‘ard not to do so, the law becoihes MF- Ro prota chart to govern conduct put MF. Ty @ game of chance; instead of set- Mr. Acers_ Hing rights and Habilities it un Mr. Carson___ _#ettles them. Counsel and parties orl Harbo ‘will bring ané prosecute actions in —— ‘the teeth of the decisions that such 4 MT- Hendon actions are not maintainable on Mr. Mumford _ the not improbable chance that Mr. Starke__ the asserted rule will be thrown Mr. Quinn Tan overboard, Defendants will not Mr. Nease_ ‘xsow whether to litigate or to ‘settle, for they will have no assur- ance that a declared rule will be ‘followed. But the more deplorable consequence will inevitably be that : the administration of justice will fall into disrepute. Respect for ‘tribunals must fall when thi} bar and the public come + understand that nothing haz been #iid iniprior adjudication has force in a current controversy, Growth Allowed For * “Of course, the law may grow fo meet changing conditions. I do not advocate slavish adherence to authority where new conditions re- guire new rules of conduct. But this is not such a case. The tend- ency to disregard precedents in the deeision of cases like the present has become s0 strong in this court of late as, in my view, to shake confidence in the consistency of decision and leave the courts be- iow on an uncharted sea of doubt and difficulty without any confi- dence that what was said yesterd-y will be good tomorrow, unless tn- “deed a modern instance grows into a cusiom of members of ; court Mise Gandy Oo make public announcenjent of dicate they willchange their votes ans same question wien an- :otber case comes before the court. “This might, to some extent, ob- 'yiate the predicament in which the lower courts, the bar and the public find themselves.” range of views and to , — ake —aee Sor yWRCORDED 6G. FEB OD 1944 ee ee ee WASHINGTON POST i Page a ted