Law Commons^™

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Identification & Police Line-ups By William E. Ringle New York: Gould Publications, 1968. Pp. x, 211. $5.00 (Paper)

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Metropolitan Decision Processes: An Analysis of Case Studies By Morris Davis & Marvin G. Weinbaum. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1969. Pp. xx; 131.

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The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions Edited by Theodore L. Becker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 213. $2.50 (Paper).

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The Limits of the Criminal Sanction By Herbert L. Packer.Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968. Pp. xi, 385. $8.95.

The Desegregation Opinion Revisited:Legal Or Sociological?, Morris D. Forkosch

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is the thesis of this article that the Supreme Court, regardless of its decision for or against the state laws, had the judicial ability and jurisdiction to render the opinion in the Desegregation Case of 1954. A distinction is drawn here between the judicial power to decide a case regardless of any attendant consequences, and the reasons given for that decision. When reasons which were supposedly valid seventy years ago are now rejected, there is nothing illogical in this rejection so long as the Court still adheres to the identical procedure used earlier; but when the substance within the …

Book Reviews, Robert H. Birkby, Elliot E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Law and Politics in the Supreme Court By Martin Shapiro New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964. Pp. 333. $6.95.

reviewer: Robert H. Birkby

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Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 1885-1940 By R. F. V. Heuston Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964, Pp. xxiii, 632.

reviewer: Elliot E. Cheatham

Court-Curbing Periods In American History, Stuart S. Nagel

Vanderbilt Law Review

Due to its unavoidable involvement in the political process, the Supreme Court has often been an object of congressional attack. Excellent descriptive studies have been made of certain periods of conflict between Congress and the Court,' but there is a lack of writing which systematically analyzes relations between Congress and the Court throughout American history. It is the purpose of this: paper to analyze in a partially quantitative manner some of the factors which seem to account for the occurrence or nonoccurrence and for the success or failure of congressional attempts to curb the Court.

Justice Murphy: The Freshman Years, Woodford Howard

Vanderbilt Law Review

Justice Murphy is commonly regarded as having been a libertarian activist. He was not highly regarded as a Justice during his lifetime and this opinion prevails today. Here Professor Howard sees Justice Murphy during his early years on the Supreme Court as a man of indecision rather than an uncompromising libertarian. Through an examination of first amendment cases between 1940-42, the author finds that Murphy displayed a common reaction to the responsibilities of a new Supreme Court Justice which differed from most only in intensity.

Theodore Roosevelt And The Appointment Of Mr. Justice Moody, Paul T. Heffron

Vanderbilt Law Review

The author here describes the events leading to the appointment of William Henry Moody to the United States Supreme Court. Here counts the pressures brought to bear on President Theodore Roosevelt and the considerations which led to the President's selection of Moody over Horace Harmon Lurton.

Salmon P. Chase: Chief Justice, David F. Hughes

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article is not an in-depth study of some aspect of Salmon P. Chase's career as Chief Justice. Nor is it a survey of his judicial career. Rather, it is an attempt to present an overall view of Chase as Chief Justice through an examination of a limited number of topics. Such an approach seemed appropriate, for the sweep of his days on the Court are not well enough known to make a detailed study of one aspect of his career particularly valuable, nor is enough known about him to make a summary more than an exercise in superficiality. In …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In his discussion of the traditional power framework within which the Supreme Court operates the author covers old ground, dealing with such matters as the jurisdictional limitations upon the Court, its law court function of making case by case determinations, and its self-imposed restraints as to when and how it will hear and determine a controversy. The second broad heading, entitled "Marshalling the Court," forms probably the most fascinating chapter in the book. The author is here concerned with the issue most vital to any policy-oriented Justice: How can he win and hold for his side at least four other …

Chief Justice Taft At The Helm, Alpheus T. Mason

Vanderbilt Law Review

The office of Chief Justice carries scant inherent powers. The Chief Justice manages the docket, presents the cases in conference, and guides the discussion. When in the majority, he assigns the writing of opinions. Whatever influence he exerts in the exercise of these prerogatives rests less on formal authority than on elusive personal characteristics. Charles Evans Hughes, who had served as Associate Justice from 1910 to 1916 and later had been able to observe Taft's role in the Court over a period of seven years, considered the Chief Justice "the most important judicial officer in the world." His actual power, …

In Search Of Holmes From Within, Saul Touster

Vanderbilt Law Review

What appears here is part of a longer psychological study of Holmes which takes as points of focus, or rather of entree, four of his life choices: his enlistment in the Union forces while still in college in 1861, his entrance into law school in 1864, his decision to give up a law professorship at Harvard in 1882 in favor of the Massachusetts bench, and finally, his move to Washington and the Supreme Court in 1902. In a sense this last was not a choice. There were not the clear alternatives before him as there were in the first three--he …

Immunity Through Confession?, John A. Spanogle Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Does this advice from Judge Leonard P. Moore sound fanciful? Could it ever profit a criminal to confess his guilt? The advisability of such action may not be as improbable as it sounds. In order to determine whether it is fanciful or not it is necessary to review several cases decided by the United States Supreme Court, which this article will undertake to do.

Book Reviews, Ronan E. Degnan, Jerold Israel, Robert F. Drinan S.J.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cases and Materials on Debtor and Creditor

By Vern Countryman

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1964. Pp. lxiii, 841. $12.50.

reviewer: Ronan E. Degnan

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The Supreme Court on Trial

By Charles S. Hyneman

New York: Atherton Press, 1963. Pp. IX, 308. $6.50.

reviewer: Jerold Israel

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Religion and American Constitutions (1963 Rosenthal Lectures)

By Wilbur G. Katz

Northwestern University Press 1964. Pp. 114. $3.50.

reviewer: Rev. Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

The Waite Court And The Fourteenth Amendment, Howard J. Graham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Underscoring so much while leaving so much unsaid, this book is a powerful plea for post-1937 trends and constructions--not merely in the Supreme Court, but now in Congress. How does the nation, the Court, the Congress, make good a lost century? Chief Justice Waite's triumph--decidedly more modest in my estimation than in Dr. Magrath's--was that he dared, tried, succeeded--at least by half. The country's failure was that it so long did not--has not yet--even by half. Twenty years and three constitutional amendments after emancipation too many of our forebears, including all members of this Court except the former Union colonel …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

A TREASURY OF LEGAL QUOTATIONS Selected by Paul C. Cook New York:Vantage Press, 1961. Pp.181. $5.00

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COLONIAL JUSTICE IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS Edited by Joseph H. Smith Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. Pp.ix, 426. $7.50.

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THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: ITS BUSINESS, PURPOSES, AND PERFORMANCE By Paul A. Freund Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1961. Pp.224. $1.35.

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A LAWYER'S VERSUS. By Irving J. Siegal New York: Vantage Press, 1960. Pp.40. $2.00.

Baker V. Carr -- Malapportionment In State Governments Becomes A Federal Constitutional Issue, William M. Hames

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Court's decision in Baker v. Carr was properly cast in terms of protecting individual rights under the equal protection clause, for this issue can be distinguished and separately handled. It does seem inevitable, however, that the decisions which set standards by which to determine invidious discrimination will also by these standards delineate, at least in broad outline, one aspect of what will be considered an acceptable "republican" form of government guaranteed by the Constitution.

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 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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …