Constitutional Law Commons^™

Gideon V. Wainwright: The Art Of Overruling, Jerold H. Israel

Articles

During the 1962 Term, the Supreme Court, on a single Monday, announced six decisions concerned with constitutional limitations upon state criminal procedure. The most publicized of these, though probably not the most important in terms of legal theory or practical effect, was Gideon v. Wainwright. In an era of constantly expanding federal restrictions on state criminal processes, the holding of Gideon-that an indigent defendant in a state criminal prosecution has an unqualified right to the appointment of counsel-was hardly startling. And while Gideon will obviously have an important effect in the handful of states that still fail to appoint counsel …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust Law--Restraint of Trade-Supreme Court Suggests A New Reading of Section 3 of the Clayton Act

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Civil Rights--Abatement and Revival--State Survival and Wrongful Death Statutes Adopted in Federal Civil Rights Act Suits

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Constitutional Law--Tenth Amendment-the Estate of A Veteran Dying Intestate Without Heirs May Constitutionally Escheat to the Federal Rather Than State Government

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Due Process of Law--A State May Deny An Applicant Admission to the Bar for Refusing To Answer Questions About His Advocacy of Subversive Organizations Or Objectives

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Federal Courts--State Security for Expenses Statute Inapplicable in Federal Equity Action Under Securities Exchange Act

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Federal …

Book Reviews, Marian D. Irish, Ralph Slovenko

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Quest for Equality By Robert J. Harris Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1960. Pp. xiv, 173. $4.00.

reviewer: Marian D. Irish

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Confidentiality and Privileged Communication in the Practice of Psychiatry, Report No. 45. New York: Publications Office, Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 1960. Pp. 32. $.50.

reviewer: Ralph Slovenko

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY MAY DENY APPRISAL AND CONFRONTATION IN PURELY INVESTIGATIVE PROCEEDING

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--DUE PROCESS--STATE MAY DISCHARGE EMPLOYEE FOR FAILURE TO PERFORM STATUTORY DUTY TO ANSWER

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DAMAGES--REFUSAL TO INSTRUCT JURY TO CALCULATE LOSS OF EARNINGS ON THE BASIS OF NET INCOME AFTER TAXES

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EVIDENCE--ADVERSE SPOUSAL TESTIMONY--WIFE COMPELLED TO TESTIFY IN MANN ACT PROSECUTION

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FEDERAL PROCEDURE--CHANGE OF VENUE--TRANSFER OF CIVIL ACTION MUST BE TO DISTRICT HAVING STATUTORY VENUE

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FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT--SUIT ALLOWED FOR NEGLIGENCE EVEN THOUGH ACCOMPANIED BY MISREPRESENTATION

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INSURANCE--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION--REGULATION BY STATE WHERE UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE ORIGINATES DOES NOT OUST FTC …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Collection Of State Use Tax From Nonresident Vendor, Jerome M. Salle

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a Georgia corporation not qualified to do business in Florida, solicited orders for merchandise from Florida residents through independent brokers who forwarded the orders to plaintiff's Georgia office for acceptance. Plaintiff did not maintain any place of business in Florida nor have any regular employee or agent there. In a suit to enjoin the enforcement of a distress warrant issued upon plaintiff's failure to collect the Florida use tax, the chancellor denied relief and the Florida Supreme Court affirmed. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, one Justice dissenting. Enforcement of the statute requiring collection …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Right Of Second Offender To Pre-Sentence Hearing Regarding Prior Conviction, John Edward Porter S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Relator was convicted of burglary in 1953 and of voluntary manslaughter in 1954. While passing sentence after the latter conviction, the court declared that it was exercising its discretion under the Habitual Criminal Act by imposing a double penalty on the relator. Neither relator nor his counsel objected to the procedure or demanded a hearing regarding the prior conviction. On petition for writ of habeas corpus, which was denied by the lower court, relator admitted the fact of his prior conviction. He asserted, however, that although the habitual criminal statute in terms contains no provision granting alleged second offenders notice …

Constitutional Law--1960 Tennessee Survey, James C. Kirby Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Eminent Domain--Just Compensation.-Landowners sued the Tennessee Commissioner of Highways and Public Works for compensation for a taking of property for the state's superhighway program in Brooksbank v. Leech. The trial court sustained a demurrer on the ground that the suit was barred by sovereign immunity. In order to dispose of this question on appeal the supreme court first determined whether the legislature had provided an adequate statutory method for just compensation, the absence of which would have rendered the taking unconstitutional under both article I, section 21, of the Constitution of Tennessee and the due process clause of the United …

Civil Rights - Due Process - Action For Civil Conspiracy Based On Section 1983, James B. Blanchard

Michigan Law Review

In an action for damages based on sections 1983 and 1985 of the Civil Rights Act, plaintiff alleged that a county health officer and his deputy, pursuant to a conspiracy, forcibly took plaintiff to a mental hospital and confined him there for a period of two months in willful violation of a state court order requiring plaintiff to be brought before the court for a sanity hearing. Plaintiff also alleged a false return of citation to the court by the officers and an intentional suppression of facts by the officers and the examining physician regarding plaintiff's illegal detention. Plaintiff contended …

Meiklejohn: Political Freedom, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Political Freedom. By Alexander Meiklejohn

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Retroactive Application Of Uniform Principal And Income Act, Thomas E. Kauper S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The trustee of a trust created prior to the 1957 enactment of the Uniform Principal and Income Act petitioned for instructions as to whether a stock dividend received by it subsequent to the passage of the act should be allocated to principal or income. The Uniform Act provides a rule for the treatment of stock dividends contrary to the judicial rule previously adopted in Wisconsin, and is expressly made applicable to trusts existing on its date of enactment. The county court, finding the act could not be constitutionally applied to trusts created prior to its enactment, ordered the allocation of …

The Supreme Court - October 1958 Term, Bernard Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

The Supreme Court, reads a famous passage by Bryce, "feels the touch of public opinion. Opinion is stronger in America than anywhere else in the world, and judges are only men. To yield a little may be prudent, for the tree that cannot bend to the blast may be broken."

The history of the highest Court bears constant witness to the truth of Bryce's statement. Supreme Court action which has moved too far in one direction has always ultimately provoked an equivalent reaction in the opposite direction. Even an institution as august as the high tribunal cannot escape the law …

Constitutional Law - Due Process- Residence Substituted For Domicile As Basis For Divorce Jurisdiction, Paul Gerding S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff husband brought a divorce action under an Arkansas statute, which granted state courts divorce jurisdiction on the basis of residence of one of the parties within Arkansas for three months, to terminate a marriage performed in another jurisdiction. Defendant wife, domiciled in California, filed a cross complaint for separate maintenance and attacked the court's jurisdiction to grant the divorce. The lower court held the act unconstitutional in eliminating domicile of one of the parties as a jurisdictional requirement in a divorce action, and, finding that the plaintiff was not domiciled in Arkansas, dismissed the suit. On appeal, held, …

Constitutional Law--1959 Tennessee Survey, Elvin E. Overton

Vanderbilt Law Review

A smaller number of cases have been selected for inclusion in this year's survey. Seven cases are included, including one federal court decision dealing with a municipal ordinance. In addition, two specific acts of the General Assembly are noted although there has as yet been no opportunity for the courts to rule upon them.

Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Successive State Prosecutions For Same Activity, Robert L. Bombaugh

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner suspected of having robbed five persons on a single occasion. was indicted and tried for the robbery of three of them. His sole defense was alibi and he was acquitted when only one of the five victims identified him as the robber. Petitioner was then tried under an indictment for the robbery of a fourth victim. Petitioner interposed the same defense but was convicted at this second trial. The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, three justices dissenting. Neither the successive trials nor the failure of the court to …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Dismissal Of State Employees For Refusal To Answer Questions Concerning Membership In Communist Organizations, Roger W. Findley

Michigan Law Review

In companion cases state employees of Pennsylvania and New York were dismissed on grounds of "incompetency" and "doubtful trust and reliability" for refusing to answer questions by superiors concerning membership in communist organizations. Petitioner Beilan also invoked the Fifth Amendment at a hearing by a congressional investigating committee between the time he refused to answer his superior and the time he was dismissed. Appellant Lerner had invoked the Fifth Amendment when he refused to answer the questions asked by city officials. The highest courts of the states upheld the dismissals, making it clear that they were based on refusal to …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a hearing before the Commissioner of Investigation of the City of New York, appellant refused to state whether he was then a member of the Communist Party and based his refusal to answer on the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. He was thereafter discharged as an employee of the New York Transit Authority pursuant to provisions of the New York Security Risk Law' which allows dismissal of employees of security agencies who are found to be of "doubtful trust and reliability." Without seeking administrative remedies, appellant brought a proceeding in the state court for reinstatement contending that …

Constitutional Law - Civil Rights - Recent New York City Ordinance Bans Discrimination In Certain Private Housing Facilities, W. Stanley Walch

Michigan Law Review

A recent New York City ordinance is the first anti-discrimination legislation affecting the sale and rental of privately-owned housing to minority groups. The ordinance contains three principal provisions: It (1) forbids racial or religious discrimination by private owners in the selection of tenants or buyers for any "housing accommodation which is located in a multiple dwelling," (2) bans discrimination in the selection of purchasers by a seller of ten or more contiguous housing units, and (3) prohibits the owner or lessor of housing accommodations covered by the ordinance from discriminating because of race or religion in setting the terms of …

Constitutional Law - Due Process -Knowledge Of The Law Required For Conviction Under Criminal Registration Ordinance, David C. Berg

Michigan Law Review

Defendant-appellant was charged with violation of a Los Angeles municipal ordinance which required all persons convicted of a felony in California, or of a crime committed elsewhere which would have been punishable as a felony in California, subsequent to January 1, 1921, to register with the Chief of Police upon remaining in the city longer than five days, or upon making more than five visits to the city within a thirty-day period. At the time of her arrest, appellant had been a resident of Los Angeles for seven years. Within that period she had been convicted (in Los Angeles) of …

Civil Rights - Legislation - The Civil Rights Act Of 1957, Thomas R. Winquist S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to note the nature of the prior legislation in the civil rights area, the provisions of the new act and the effect of the new act upon civil rights protection.

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Denial Of Admission To The Bar Based On Unwarranted Inferences Of Bad Moral Character, Jerome B. Libin

Michigan Law Review

Power over admission to the bar has long been vested in the judiciary of each state. While the legislature may prescribe certain standards, the state court alone is responsible for the determination of those qualified for the practice of law within its jurisdiction. The application of these standards often demands the exercise of meticulous judgment by the court in reaching its conclusion as to an applicant's fitness. Where, on the evidence or lack of evidence presented, the court finds that it cannot in good conscience grant its approval, the candidate is denied admission. To the extent that such a denial …

Constitutional Law - Due Process -Watkins V. United States As A Limitation On Power Of Congressional Investigating Committees, Allan F. Bioff S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to examine the nature and extent of the restraints imposed by the Watkins case as well as the potential problems raised by the decision.

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Jurisdiction Of A State Court Over A Foreign Corporation, Robert L. Knauss S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Peninsular Gas Company, a Michigan corporation, brought an action in Missouri against the plaintiff for breach of contract. A judgment was returned for plaintiff, and plaintiff immediately filed suit for malicious prosecution and served process on the president of the corporation who was in Missouri for the prior trial. On a motion to quash, held, sustained. Under the due process clause of the United States Constitution, the court had no right to assume jurisdiction. Defendant corporation was not doing business in Missouri, for bringing a prior lawsuit was a single isolated act and was not a part of its …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Adequacy Of Notice By Publication, Cyril Moscow S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In condemnation proceedings instituted by a city against a landowner, notice of proceedings to determine his compensation was given only by publication in the official city newspaper. The statute in force called for notice either in writing or by publication. After the time authorized for appeal from a compensation award had elapsed, the landowner brought an equitable action to enjoin the city from entering upon the property, alleging that he knew nothing of the condemnation proceedings until after the time for appeal had passed. The trial court denied relief, holding that the newspaper publication was sufficient notice to meet due …

A Missing Link In The Evolution Of Due Process, Wallace Mendelson

Vanderbilt Law Review

On the eve of the American Revolution, Blackstone could comment that "so great.., is the regard of the [English] law for private property ... it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community."' A similar concern for proprietary interests soon found expression on this side of the Atlantic in what Professor Corwin has called "The Basic Doctrine of American Constitutional Law"; namely, the "doctrine of vested interests." The general purport of this concept was that "the effect of legislation on existing property rights was a primary test of its …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Notice Required To Validate Tax Foreclosure Of Property Of Known Mental Incompetent, Frank M. Lacey S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On May 8, 1952, the town of Somers instituted an action to foreclose a number of tax liens. One of these was upon the property owned by a person known in the community to be a mental incompetent, but who had not yet been so certified by a court. Notice was given to the incompetent taxpayer in compliance with the statute by mail, posting, and publication. When she failed to answer within the prescribed period, foreclosure was entered and a deed to her property delivered to the town. Five days later she was declared a person of unsound mind, and …

The Fourteenth Amendment Reconsidered, The Segregation Question, Alfred H. Kelly

Michigan Law Review

Some sixty years ago in Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court of the United States adopted the now celebrated "separate but equal" doctrine as a constitutional guidepost for state segregation statutes. Justice Brown's opinion declared that state statutes imposing racial segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, provided only that the statute in question guaranteed equal facilities for the two races. Brown's argument rested on a historical theory of the intent, although he offered no evidence to support it. "The object of the amendment," he said, "was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, …

Constitutional Law - Right To Counsel In Juvenile Court, John A. Ziegler Jr.

Michigan Law Review

In April 1953 petitioner was found to have violated a law by the juvenile court. Being under the age of eighteen, he was committed to the National Training School for Boys of the District 0£ Columbia. He was paroled about a year later but was re-arrested in March 1955 for violation of his parole and brought before the United States Parole Board. Before the parole board could take action he petitioned the federal district court for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the action of the juvenile court in 1953 had been unconstitutional in that petitioner had …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Use Of Habeas Corpus To Allow Federal Court To Review State Court Jury Determination Of Voluntariness Of Confession, Herbert R. Brown S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The prisoner had been convicted of murder in the state court. He brought a habeas corpus proceeding in federal district court to secure his release from custody on the ground that the conviction was based on a confession which was obtained by physical violence. The confession had been submitted to the jury, which was instructed to consider it only if it found that it was not obtained by duress or fear produced by threats. The district court granted the writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, held, affirmed. The district court could determine the facts of the case for itself. …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Automatic And Permanent Dismissal Of Public School Teachers For Invoking The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination, John B. Huck S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners, employed as public school teachers in New York City, were subpoenaed to appear before a Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. When questioned by the committee about communist activities, petitioners asserted the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. Pursuant to the New York City Charter, they were summarily dismissed and permanently barred from re-employment by the city. No hearing was required nor given prior to the dismissal. There was no evidence of conduct otherwise warranting a dismissal. In an action for reinstatement, held, dismissal affirmed. Daniman v. Board of Education of City of New York, 306 N.Y. 532, 119 N.E. (2d) …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Dismissal Of Appeal As Exercise Of Contempt Power, Morton A. Polster S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A superior court of the state of Washington rendered a $475,000 judgment against the petitioner union for the circulation of a libelous letter. The union filed an appeal to the Washington Supreme Court but obtained no stay of proceedings in the lower court because it made no offer of the required supersedeas bond. In a supplemental proceeding it was learned that the union had no substantial assets in Washington but did have $298,000 of United States bonds in its possession in California. The Superior Court ordered the union to deliver these bonds to the court's receiver to protect the judgment …