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Full-Text Articles in Law
Chief Justice Taft At The Helm, Alpheus T. Mason
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, …
The "Liberalism" Of Chief Justice Hughes, Samuel Hendel
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 …
Recent Judicial Biographies: A Composite Review, Otis P. Dobie
Recent Judicial Biographies: A Composite Review, Otis P. Dobie
Vanderbilt Law Review
The great Chief Justice of our time has been considerably recalled in the period under review. Pusey,' in a lengthy readable treatment that does not emphasize the legal, views Hughes as a liberal of circa 1910 who was uncomfortable but acquiescent amid the 1930's progressions. Interesting tidbits include a moving account of Hughes' mission to Holmes to request his resignation; bar letters to White complaining of the vagueness of Holmes' opinions; the friendship of Hughes with White and Harlan; Hughes' concern over the tendency of the New Deal brethren to expansively construe statutes and approve state taxes on interstate commerce …