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Supreme Court — Part 28
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incr Hamilton,
e nsibility Placed by
Constitution apon the ju-
rie Co to imsure that the
Sengreas does does not not anjeste
an =
Bt Ancien right te privacy nor
_ abridge his liberty of speech,
_ press, religion e¢ assembly” |
On the very'‘same decision }
day, the Court placed added
jjemphasis on Firat: Amend-
ment rights in the Sweezy
ase. .
TAKE ANOTHER situation
in which the Vinson Court did
\ nothing to check trespasses
on civil iiberties—this time
‘Athe Executive Branch of the
it Government. The Department
of State had arrogated to it-
self arbitrary authority to de-
termine, in its own absolute
discretion, who could go
abroad. Secretary of State
Dutles, and Secretary Ache-
son before him, denied pass-
| Ports whenever they conclud-
| ed—often on the basis of un-
: disclosed information from.
. gnonymous sources—that it
was not in the best interests
, of the United States to allow
CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN .
... emphasis on inddvidyal .
freedom soe
ane
: gan American citizen to travel.
; his past spring, howevet,
the Warren Court denounced
this practice as inconsfnant
with a clearly recognized con-
stitutional right to travel and
held that the Secretary: sot
Siate could no longer. with
{ hold passports whenever he
pleased. in the absence. of
legislation fixing standar'Js
for the issuance of passports.
Another illustration may be
found in regard to the rman
tutionality of the Governmen
loyalty-security program. “Tn!
the Dorothy Bailey Case,
braughi_pefore it iy LOS), .
the Court divided follr 4a-four.
Goreron mt hoy aly ae. |
Goreramen oy P -
“It ‘cannot be sai gt the,
lvarren Court a
the Warren Court held dismis-
sals. under the program to be
invalid and restored dis-
missed employes to their
positions, And in the Cole
Case, it Limited application
of the program to sensitive
positions actually affecting |
upon the constitution “of
the ltoyalty-security pr ‘
Nevertheless, in the
Case and in thé Service Cane,
national security.
/ THERE is one additional
area. in which the Warren
Court has rendered distin-
guished service as a cham
pion of civil liberties. It has
resolutely insisted upon po-
lice observance of those pro-
cedural protections of the Bill
of Rights which laymen are
too often disposed to dismiss
as mere legal technicalities.
1 | (hiet ne af Hhaete 8
£00 sw Ltr SIVUEGT)
HW
Justice Frankfurter once ob- .
served, “has largely been the |
history of observance of pro- *
cedura] safeguards. And the
effective administration of .
erimina) justice hardly re-
quires disregard of fair proce-
. dures inmposed by law.”
In a number of cases, the
Warren Court has upset con-
victions
because police or |
prosecutors have taken short ©
pute whish tmepalyvsad trasnase.
be said that these decisions
made law enforcement more
dificult. They served, how-
ever, to keep police -power..
from becoming oppressive
and to make the administra- .
tion of justice in the United
States consonant with an_at-
mosphere of freedom.
IT I8, of course, misleading
to speak of the Warren Court
or the Vinson Court as though
these were distinct bodies gov-
erned by the personalities of
their Chief Justices. Three
Justices—Black, Frankfurter,
and Douglas — have served
continuously throughout the
decade, and the terms of
_other Justices overlapped our
‘arbitary dividing line. And,
in addition, new faces have
appeared.
Obviously, there was a com-
plex
Court was, as it always is, re-
-ing on the rights of defend-—
ants. To some extent, it may
Lor
Tr.
interaction here. The ©
sponsive to the country as:
well as responsible in some
measure for the abatement
of its fever.
National security is of vital
importance. But we need
above all else to remember
that the one true function of
security is Se-mele
individual freedom secure.
malate ‘
attribute of fu
manship to wait
tian
time has ripened the
ness of society to accept new
directions in the law. The
panic atmosphere in which
the Vinson Court functioned
no longer prevailed with any-
thing like the same intensity
when the Warren Court made
the poaet haetaninn dAantcinnes
i Bl1cCaL liber WAL 1a UCL loin.
And perhaps the real signifi-
eance of the Warren Court's
championship of individual
liberty lies in the reflection
of a rendscence among Amer-
icans of confidence in their
own institutions and of re-
spect for the utility of free-
dom>
NOW IT IS all very well to
take heart from the Warren
‘Court's championship of the
Bill of Rights and to deduce
from this championship that
the country's high fever over
sulversion has subsided. I do
not think, however, that there
is any justification for con-
cluding that the Nation has
completed its convalescence
or that all goes well in the
best of all possible cbuntries.
Let me point out some
considgrations_ in-
: a
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