Law Commons^™

Judicial Review: Political Reality And Legislative Purpose: The Supreme Court's Supervision Of Congressional Investigations, Martin Shapiro

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Supreme Court has long claimed the power to exercise judicial review over the investigatory activities of Congress. The most severe limitation the Court has imposed is the requirement of legislative purpose. Investigations must be conducted for the purpose of aiding Congress in making the laws. But the Court has also introduced the doctrine of presumption of legislative purpose. The Justices will presume that the investigating committee and the Congress which authorized it had a legislative purpose in pursuing the inquiry. It will be argued here that these two doctrines are completely inter-dependent; once legislative purpose was required, presumption was …

Book Reviews, Stanley D. Rose (Reviewer), Wallace Mendelson (Reviewer), Lawrence Herman (Reviewer), William R. Anderson (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

THE PRESIDENCY OF JOHN ADAMS, THE COLLAPSE OF FEDERALISM, 1795-1800. By Stephen G. Kurtz-- Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957. Pp. 448. $8.50.

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THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS, THE FORMATION OF PARTY ORGANIZATION, 1789-1801. By Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.-- Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957. Pp. x, 279. $6.00.

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THE SUPREME COURT FROM TAFT TO WARREN-- By Alpheus T. Mason-- Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958. Pp. 250. $4.95.

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THE LAW OF AWOL. By Alfred Avins. New York: Oceana Publications, 1957. Pp. xxxi, 288. $4.95. --

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TRAFFIC VICTIMS, TORT LAW & INSURANCE. By Leon Green. …

Constitutional Law -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Elvin E. Overton

Vanderbilt Law Review

State constitutional law decisions, lacking the universality of application of many other fields of the law, are vital and of significance frequently only to the local bar and local public officials. There is another difference between state constitutional law decisions, and federal constitutional law decisions: state courts are inclined to deal with state constitutional issues with an emphasis on the pragmatic problem of deciding the case and getting it out of the way,rather than with an emphasis on completing the blue print-of seeking to establish the general principle which reflects the conflicting policies struggling for recognition. In most United States …

The Brandeis Brief, Marion E. Doro

Vanderbilt Law Review

On February 13, 1939, Louis D. Brandeis wrote the following note to his Chief Executive:

Dear Mr. President:Pursuant to the Act of March 1, 1937, I retire this day from regular service on the bench. Cordially, Louis D. Brandeis

With this brief, laconic statement, he ended twenty-three years on the Supreme Court of the United States at the age of eighty-two. In frail health, but still retaining the intellectual vigor he displayed all his life, he stepped down from the bench to make way for a younger member. This act in itself was characteristic of Brandeis; his respect for the …

The Supreme Court And Racial Discrimination, George W. Spicer

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this essay is to consider the response of the Supreme Court of the United States to two general aspects of racial discrimination: first, discrimination as restrictive of political freedom and, second,discrimination as restrictive of the enjoyment of such social advantages as the acquisition and occupancy of real estate, transportation and education.

Jeremy Bentham, The Contract Clause And Justice John Archibald Campbell, John R. Schmidhauser

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conflicts between the desire to meet the felt needs of society and the desire to maintain existing property rights have long perplexed modern governments. The methods adopted for the resolution of such conflicts quite naturally reflect the prevailing social and political ideology in each nation. In the United States in the period of the Philadelphia Convention, the prevailing temper, at least among the influential, was one of insistence upon the preservation of the sanctity of private property. This insistence and the widespread public reverence for law and judicial institutions determined that state interference with or modification of private contracts be …

The Federal Loyalty -- Security Program, Harold W. Chase

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the long run, the Report of the Special Committee on the Federal Loyalty-Security Program of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York will undoubtedly have a profound effect on the national government's complex of programs designed to ferret "security risks" out of government, industrial and maritime jobs. Indeed, the short-run impact has been impressive....

In sum and substance this is a very fine report, my own criticisms notwithstanding. In addition to the portions of the report discussed in detail above there are excellent chapters on the issues involved, the Communist threat, the operation of the …

Holmes And Brandeis: Companions In Dissent, Samuel J. Konefsky

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the 1920's, the words "Justices Holmes and Brandeis dissented" had become a familiar refrain in discussions about the work of the Supreme Court. This affinity between two men so unlike each other in background and method naturally puzzled the observers, and the effort to explain their relationship has produced two mutually contradictory theories. One view holds that though the two jurists approached problems differently, they usually arrived at the same conclusion because they shared a common philosophy on all really basic issues. "Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Dembitz Brandeis," a contemporary press comment read, "have achieved a spiritual kinship …

The Utopian Pilgrimage Of Mr. Justice Murphy, John P. Roche

Vanderbilt Law Review

On July 19, 1949, Frank Murphy, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States died in Detroit. The liberal press mourned the passing of a mighty warrior for civil liberty. Other journals observed the protocol of the occasion by politely deploring his death, the University of Michigan Law School prepared a memorial issue of the Michigan Law Review' in honor of its distinguished alumnus, a few encomiums appeared in the law journals, then silence set in. A silence which has been broken only by occasional slighting references to Murphy's talents, and by a word-of-mouth tradition in law school …

Mr. Justice Rutledge And The Roosevelt Court, Alfred O. Canon

Vanderbilt Law Review

The career of Mr. Justice Wiley Blount Rutledge on the Supreme Court of the United States came to an end on September 10, 1949. His passing signified the end of a man's work--and the end of an era. As Rutledge's last opinion became a part of American constitutional history, the Roosevelt Court disappeared and a new alignment of majority and minority was born. The influence of Rutledge in this important period of constitutional development will be difficult to measure until the broader outlines of contemporary social, political, economic, and legal trends are more firmly sketched in the future. A justice's …

Chief Justice Taney: Prophet Of Reform And Reaction, Robert J. Harris

Vanderbilt Law Review

Roger Brooke Taney's judicial career began and ended in controversy.' His appointment as Chief Justice in 1836 came not long after his nomination to be Secretary of the Treasury had been rejected and his nomination to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court had been indefinitely postponed because of his role as a central figure in the great controversy between the Jackson administration and the Bank of the United States. These successive nominations of Taney to high position evoked a flood of partisan invective against him in an age which was hardly characterized by restraint. In the course of …

The "Liberalism" Of Chief Justice Hughes, Samuel Hendel

Vanderbilt Law Review

Charles Evans Hughes ascended the bench as Chief Justice of the United States in February 1930 in the midst of the most serious and steadily worsening economic crisis in American history; a crisis which was to put the institution of judicial review, the Court, and the leadership of its Chief Justice to their severest test. "One may search in vain," said Harlan F. Stone, "for a period in the history of the Supreme Court in which the burden resting on the Chief Justice has been so heavy or when his task has been more beset with difficulties."Now, twenty years after …

Samuel F. Miller, Justice Of The Supreme Court, 1862-1890, Charles Fairman

Vanderbilt Law Review

It was in the summer, about 1880. Miller, on the rounds of his circuit, had come to Omaha, where, in chambers, he was to hear counsel argue a mining case from Colorado. In the hall of the post office building, Miller saw Roscoe Pound (aetat circa 101 and already known to the Judge), and greeted him with the inquiry: "Well, sonny, how would you like to come with me while I hear a case?" Gladly the lad went along, and seated himself on the floor, Turkish-fashion, under the Judge's desk. The controversy concerned what was then a new and highly …

A Sketch Of John Marshall Harlan's Pre-Court Career, David G. Farrelly

Vanderbilt Law Review

Like other men before and after his time, John Marshall Harlan of Kentucky left his imprint on the law. Nearly 34 years on the Supreme Court of the United States gave Harlan ample opportunity to express his opinions on a host of legal questions. Sitting on the high bench as he did from 1877 to 1911, public problems passed before him for review in the form of litigation. During that post-Civil War period as today there was discrimination against the Negro in American society. Despite the constitutional guaranties of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, Negroes were not accorded the …

Justice William Cushing And The Treaty-Making Power, F. William O'Brien S.J.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the work of the Supreme Court during the first few years was not great if measured in the number of cases handled, it would be a mistake to conclude that the six men who sat on the Bench during this formative period made no significant contribution to the development of American constitutional law. The Justices had few if any precedents to use as guides, and therefore their judicial work, limited though it was in volume, must be considered as stamped with the significance which attaches to all pioneer activity. Moreover, most of this work was done while on circuit …

The Supreme Court Of History, Howard Jay Graham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our theme is simple, overpowering: Justices of the Supreme Court, a number of whose predecessors destroyed the bulk or their correspondence, and who themselves may be tempted to do likewise, nonetheless quite evidently desire, and certainly deserve, faithful (if not quite full) reconstruction, both of their individual roles, and of the Court's, in our constitutional scheme. Much of this story, to quote the then Professor Frankfurter, is "largely irrecoverable,"' yet indispensable to an understanding of our institutions.

Manifestly, something of a paradox is involved in our whole attitude toward judicial history. Much of the law, particularly judge-made public law, is …

Book Reviews, Max Rheinstein (Reviewer), William P. Murphy (Reviewer), Harrison Tweed (Reviewer), Walter P. Armstrong, Jr. (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

This subject matter is not fully recognizable from the title, which might be understood to indicate that the book deals with the entire legal system of the United States including or, perhaps even emphasizing, the substantive law of the country and its sources. This is not the case, however. It is the sub-title which gives a more descriptive indication of the contents: "The Administration of Justice in the United States by Judicial, Administrative, Military, and Arbitral Tribunals." Not the substantive law of the United States is the concern of the author, but the machinery by which it is administered, the …

Charles Evans Hughes: An Appeal To The Bar Of History, Alpheus T. Mason

Vanderbilt Law Review

Preparations for this Pulitzer prize-winning biography began in 1932 when a Princeton University undergraduate, Henry C. Beerits, took Hughes' public career as the topic of his senior thesis. On the suggestion of friends and instructors Beerits sent his sympathetic, uncritical essay to the Chief Justice. Evidently much pleased, Hughes promptly invited the youthful author to Washington, where he spent nearly a year arranging the Justice's public papers. Many sessions were spent together; the Chief Justice reminisced at great length, all this being noted down and turned over to Mr. Pusey. After retirement in 1941 the Chief Justice wrote "several hundred …

A Modern Supreme Court In A Modern World, Charles F. Curtis

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is all very well, indeed it is very good, to bear down on the fact that the author of the Constitution was, and still is, "We the People of the United States." But there is more sentiment than explanation in it. We think too much about who is the author of the Constitution. Of course it was not the Convention of 1789, nor the First Congress which wrote the Bill of Rights, nor the Thirty-Ninth which wrote the Fourteenth Amendment. It was We the People, but even when we have recognized this, all we have done is recognize that …

State Taxation Of Interstate Commerce --"Direct Burdens," "Multiple Burdens," Or What Have You?, Edward L. Barrett Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The problem of determining the permissible extent of state taxation of interstate commerce is as old as the Constitution.' From Chief Justice Marshall's dissertation upon the subject in 1827 in Brown v. Maryland to the present, thousands of pages of words upon the subject have found their way into the Supreme Court reports. Despite this judicial outpouring, however, the Supreme Court of the United States has yet to evolve a satisfactory theory upon which to decide cases in this field. In fact, the Court in 1951 appears as sharply divided in its basic approach to the problem as at anytime …

Book Reviews, Carl B. Swisher (Reviewer), Elvin E. Overton (Reviewer), Jay Murphy (Reviewer), Charlotte Williams (Reviewer), Alexander Holtzoff (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Reviews

LIONS UNDER THE THRONE

By Charles P. Curtis, Jr.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947. Pp. xviii, 368. $3.50

MR. JUSTICE BLACK: THE MAN AND His OPINIONS

By John P. Frank (Introduction by Charles A. Beard)

New York: Knopf Company, 1949.Pp. xix, 357. $4.00

ON UNDERSTANDING THE SUPREME COURT

By Paul A. Freund

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1949. Pp. vi, 130. $3.00

MELVILLE VESTON FULLER: CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1888-1919

By Willard L. King

New York: Macmillan Company, 1950. Pp.394. $5.00

CHIEF JUSTICE STONE AND THE SUPREME COURT

By Samuel J. Konefsky (Prefatory Note by Charles A. …

Book Reviews, Noel T. Dowling (Reviewer), Hugo L. Black, Jr. (Reviewer), George H. Cate, Sr. (Reviewer), Henry N. Williams (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

On Understanding the Supreme Court

By Paul A. Freund

Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1949. Pp. 130. $3.00

reviewer: Noel T. Dowling

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Courts on Trial

By Jerome N. Frank

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949. Pp. vii, 441. $5.00

reviewer: Hugo L. Black, Jr.

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Hugo L. Black: A Study in the Judicial Process

By Charlotte Williams

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1950. Pp. vii, 208. $3.50.

reviewer: George H. Cate, Sr.

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Hatch Act Decisions (Political Activity Cases) of the United States Civil Service Commission

By James W. Irwin

Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1949. Pp. 304. $1.50 …

Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Books Received

Availability for Work

By Ralph Altman

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950. Pp. 350. $4.50

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Comparative Law, Cases and Materials

Rudolf B. Schlesinger

Brooklyn:The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 552. $7.50

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Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure, Cases

By Ray Forrester

St. Paul:West Publishing Company, 1950. Pp. 990. $8.50.

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Financial History of Tennessee Since 1870

By James E. Thorogood

State of Tennessee: Department of Finance and Taxation, 1950. Pp. 245.

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International Law, Cases and Materials

By Edwin D. Dickinson

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. 740. $8.00

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Primer of Procedure

By Delmar Karlen Madison:

Campus …

Book Notes And Books Received, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Book Notes

Labor Relations and Federal Law

By Donald H. Wollett

Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1949. Pp. xxv, 148, 30. $3.00

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Tennessee Personal Injury Fact Digest

Compiled by Eugene McSweeney

Nashville: The Fact Digest Co., 1949. Pp. 124. $5.50

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BOOKS RECEIVED

Cases on Federal Taxation

By Roswell Magill

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. i, 546. $7.00

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Cases on Trusts

By George Gleason Bogert

Brooklyn: The Foundation Press, Inc., 1950. Pp. i, 1041. $7.50

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Differences in Income for Accounting and Federal Income Tax

By Clarence F. Reimer

Chicago: Commerce Clearing House, 1949. Pp. iii,184. …

Mr. Justice Mcreynolds -- An Appreciation, R. V. Fletcher

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the course of the memorial exercises in honor of Justice McReynolds, held in the Supreme Court of the United States on March 31, 1948, the Attorney General made the significant statement that McReynolds was neither liberal nor conservative." This observation was made in connection with the statement that the Justice, when he was appointed to the Court, was considered a liberal, and when he left the Court, a conservative. His characterization as a liberal was by reason of his experience as a prosecutor in antitrust cases; his reputation for conservatism rests upon his attitude toward legislative measures and economic …