OCR Text |
Show A MOMENTOUS SESSION. On October 7 the United States Supreme court opened in its new 10 million dollar building, what may prove to be one of the most moment-. moment-. ous sessions ever held by the nation's liighest tribunal For the fate of much New Deal legislation is at stake. Inasmuch as the members of this august body of jurists are but human and are generally classified as conservatives con-servatives or liberals, in the light of their past records on the bench and elsewhere, it may be said that broadly broad-ly speak'ng the personnel of the court is divided somewhat as follows: Four conservatives, Associate Justices Jus-tices James C. MeReynolds, Willis Van Devanter, Pierce Butler and George Southerland. Four liberals, Associate Justices Louis D. Brandeis, Harlem F. Stone, Owen J. Roberts and Benjamin N. Cardoza. Ch'ef Justice Jus-tice Charles E. Hughes votes sometimes some-times with one group and sometimes with the other, but he is most often found taking the liberal side. These classifications, however, do not give a very definite clue to the j probable vote of the court on consti-j tutional questions. Although the NRA was no doubt essentially a liberal lib-eral measure, or at least was intended intend-ed to be, it was knocked out by a unanimous decision of the court, on the ground of unconstitutionality. In v'ew of the unanimity of that' decision, which wrecked one of the! most sweeping instrumentalities ofj the New Deal, it is widely believed; that much other legislation now to be j tested by the supreme court will be ' thrown out, by major'ty decisions if not unanimously. I The highest legal talent will be; employed, both to attack and defend the laws under scrutiny, and some of r the most spirited court battles in the history of the nation may be expected. ex-pected. I |