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0-19 (Rey, 7-18-58) iad i a ge * DAVID LAWRE oA AN a a) oon Sa rao: i I, wea tag's it t / ie | as a aa f paea so z C/Sunreme Court ana. Ssttled Laws nell : bee wes stn a ars Eo: Wisden Doubted of Altering Principles, ‘eis ity ote pe ; Rose ns Lena Estab ed by Prececescors ‘+e, .. philosovhy that thé-end sug. 7 Tamm wy i . tifles the means?” There wal” tte The “Btate of Arka f+ gesstons of the State lecista- Pprovhetic vision in's . famous J Trotter not “defied”. the Supreme”. : tures, “ratification” of the’* dicent by Justice Edwar Court of the Duited Rtates by. 14th Amendment was corte" _. White of the Strptemé ¢ Tele. R closing the high schools In Little Rock.. Nor _ Btate of Virginia committed | any act of . “deflance” closing achools.: The Federal Government -by | has not “defiet” the Stotes of . Btates in the Union, '. y id Arkansas and Virgin'a by sup erting plans that seek theeewh .the courts a means ef) orcorcning the = puble ° scbhoe's.. Each is ‘acting - within its own ron “‘thutionsal orbit. The, exeriise of egal rights to . The present Supreme Court,. contest the validity of State. | or" Federal action is not “d- “fiance,” The Federal Constitution Itself permits these legal procedures. It is erroneously being preached that there is only a “moral question” involved and that the Statese of the South are disregarding it when they contest: by ‘legal means the orders ‘of a Fed- "eral court requiring “in-— tegration” in : the public schools As for. “moral questions,” unfortunstely the North has forgotten, but the South hasn't that the very 14th Amendment on’ which the present Supreme Court is basing its rulings has. the . " pelied: ‘ In case "after case ‘the * Supreme Court of the United’ ” States has always evaded the © ‘ fssué of whether the 14th — Amendment was “constitu- . tionally “ratified”, and has said that this is a “political question” and’ not within ite power to resolve. . - Many people are saying. that all this iappened long _ago and that it isn’t feasible to turn the clock back: now. however, in tts 1054 decision, ,did turn the clock back 158 years and nullified the “settled Jaw” of the land on the question of “equal but separate” facilities which had beén upheld by some of the most eminent men who ever sat on the nigh court, in¢clud- ing its greatest liberals. What is “settled. law"? Abrabam Lincoln defined it as something that has been tnittally decided by the Su-. preme Court when the issue was first raised, and. then affimed and reaffirmed in decisions for years after-. wards. °: -- Thus, it is “settled law” today that no State can was born in unmorality and | be compelled to appropriate “ratified” in unmorallty, Although Abraham Lincoln had always held that the Southern States had never been out of the Union, Con- gress—after his death and three years after the Wer - Between the States was over -~—insisted that the Southern . States be excluded from rep-- resentation in the House and Senate. So when the !4th Amentiment was voted - cn, there was no representation in elther House from. many Also, when the’ Btate legis-: latures in the South--subse- quent tothe war—ratified the 13th Amendment abolish+ ing slavery but rejected the‘ 14th Amendment, ts they «" had a right to do, Congress - caused the legislatures to be” . blected with mast white voters © excluded, and en, with : Federal military manders ° i fitting le the presid-'— cers - out its money in hig posses» the legislative; ce 61 61 SEP 83 195 money or ,kéep schools open or do any affirmative thing. ‘| Just because the Federal Gov-. “ernment may want to. see it done. The “settled” law on this point was preclaimed in a vecision known as‘ Hopking. vs. Clemson College, decided. in 1911, when Justice Lamar’ wrote in behalf of the court: “No suit, therefore, can be : Maintained against a public officer which seeks to com. pel -him to exercise the State's power of taxation: or to pay sion on the State’s obliga-* tions; or to execute a con- tract, or to do any affirmative act whith affects the State's ' political or preperty rights.” ' But will this be accepted as, “settled law” by the present .Bupreme Court of the United States in the Arkansas and ~ Virginia cases? Can anything: be considered “settled” when the highest court departs. from legal | precedents : And ¢ a constitution or , constitutl jn. warranted." who later became Chief, Jags, tice, as he Wrpte: + mth *, ca nek “Teach the. lefeon- stat cettiad: orinaliniae: othe seuyeg DT Mice Tina ee overthrown at any time, and © confision and turmoll must ultimately, resutt * “ge we “Tf the’ pertanency of ita * conclusions -. td. deve! upon the: Parsonat ‘oninions of, those whb,‘from tine to time, nay ma e up ite metn- bership. it. will tevitabty be-. ° come a theater..of political” strife, and its action will be: without coherence or consist- - ency. eee’ “Breakdown dats *peuet in ‘Judicial continulty, and Jet it. _be felt that dn great: “constie. . " tutional questions’ this court is to depart Trom the settléd | conclusions: of tts predecess ** sors. and to determine them” all according to’. the mere, opinion of those who tempoe ene oat se € ieee a ard Pa rarlly fii) {ts bench, and our : Constitution will in my judement, be bereft of value, and hasome a mact danger: WE @ EGG rages ous instrument to the Tights: and liberties--of (the people.” - That solemn ‘warnthz "i given in 1895, byt: Puy month the samé- en came from the chief vustices of 36 States. who adopted report, made. after an eno $68.7 haustive study by a com- “Inittee of chief fustices- of ‘cent decisions of the Supreme | Court of the tinifed States were severely criticized, par- ticularly in the expansion of the 14th Amendment. The report, approved by the chief. justices of three-quarters of | the States of the Union. sald: : “If reasonable certainty and stability do not attach to & written Constitution, 1s [t is a sham? :: wR 2 These frequent differen. Gu bevaoiiiiay VFS E aS - ings of prior decisions 1p. constitutional cases cause ug © grave concern as tq whether individual views as to what ‘ta wise. or ‘Begirable. do nok j Wnconsciously override.” # “more dispassionate considers _sotnaltugaly iran eae * {Reproduction bi Holloman — Gandy Bas NOT ot e/a a 1958 . Post and Times Heral the States. In which the re- Wash. News Wash. Star All N. Y¥. Herald Tribune N. Y. Journal-_____ Ametican N.Y. Mirror N. Y. Daily News __ N. Y. Times Daily Worker The Worker New Leader Date ee .