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Show I FAVOR UTAHN FOR COVETED i COURT POST 1 By HAKKISOX SALISBURY 1 I n ii od Press staff Correspondent WASHINGTON', Feb. 14 ; !U.R) Administration and congressional con-gressional quarters today ex- pected President Roosevelt to i appoint a westerner to fill the supreme court seat vacated by Justice Louis Dembitz 1 Rrandeis. There was no hint ' of White House plans. r: Mr. Roosevelt was expected to fill the vacancy quickly. It will be his fourth appointment to the H high court in the two years since he advanced his supreme court re- organization plan. May Aiil Refugees The 82-year-old Brandeis gave no hint of his plans for the future in the brief note to Mr. Roosevelt in which he announced his retiri-ment retiri-ment after 23 years on the bench. He was the oldest justice and ex-f ex-f ceeded in years of service only by 1 Justice James C. McReynolds. Brandeis' friends have suggested that, if he retired he would devote his energies to aiding Jewish refu-j refu-j gees from central Europe. The first Jew to sit on the high bench, Brandeis has long been intensely interested in the Zionist move-i move-i ment. The list of persons most promin-6 promin-6 ently mentioned as possibilities for his seat was headed by westerners. Several Mentioned Among those names are those of Justice Harold Stephens of the Tl. S. Court of Appeals for the Dis-jf Dis-jf trict of Columbia, a native of , Utah; Sen. Lewis B. Schwellen-i Schwellen-i bach, D., Wash., one of the New at; Deal's staunchest senate advocates; advo-cates; Dean Wiley B. Rutledge, i- Jr., of the University of Iowa law ,e'; school; Solicitor General Robert H. t, Jackson, and Judges Sam Bratton Sjt and Joseph Hutcheson of the U. S. j circuit bench. igt Of these, the first three were re-:h re-:h garded as having the best chance. Stephens was considered for the vacancy created by the death of I- Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo 01 which was filled last month with the appointment of Justice Felix it" Frankfurter. 15. Butler Only Westerner One well-informed source said before the Frankfurter appointment, appoint-ment, he understood Brandeis would retire soon and Mr. Roose-velt Roose-velt would name Stephens to the Cardozo vacancy and Frankfurter to the Brandeis one. Increasing the likelihood that a 1 . westerner would now be named to the court, is the fact that only one court member, Pierce Butler of Minnesota, comes from .west of the M Mississippi river. Sentiment of western senators who must pass upon the nominee, m is strong for a western man. Some sf legal circles also thought the add-jj, add-jj, ing of a western jurist to the bench Jj was disirable. They contend that 3 many legal questions passed upon by the court irirgation, reclamation, reclama-tion, public lands and mining controversies con-troversies are peculiar to the west. Eastern judges have little g experience in this type of law. Resignation Brief 4j Brandeis wrote Mr. Roosevelt yesterday as follows: "Pursuant to the act of March 1, ' 1937, I retire this day from regular regu-lar active service on the bench." His action was taken under a law permitting supreme court justices jus-tices to retire on full pay after they have reached 70 years of age and have served 10 years. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes said Brandeis' retirement was a "most serious- loss ,to the court." |