COURT REFORM

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 9

COURT REFORM

Roosevelt To Continue Fight

COMPROMISE BILL U.S.A. President Points To Shortcomings Following the rejection by the United States Senate of his full plan for Supreme Court reform, President Roosevelt gave notice that he would continue to fight for a “thoroughgoing reformation of our judicial processes” and laid claim to the support of most Americans who, he said, were “restive under the slow and uncertain processes of the law.” The President had signed the compromise court Bill designed to expedite procedure in the lower courts and assure speedier adjudication of the Acts of Congress involving constitutional issues. The statement of his objectives was made in an explanation of why he signed the modified Bill, which was approved as a step in the right direction. Yet he outlined seven points by which it failed to measure up to his expectations, since it was only “a moderate and limited advance into a field which calls for further and more complete exploration.” Twice confidence was expressed that he had the support of a majority of • Americans in his quest for a thoroughgoing reorganisation of the judiciary. Going back to his original plan as introduced in Congress, he declared that its objectives were recognised as desirable by most citizens. Confidence in Courts. “In effect,” he said, “I spoke in behalf of the American people in their desire for increased respect for and confidence in speedy and fundamental justice as represented by the Federal courts. “We have wanted to bring to an end a trying period during which it has seemed that a veritable conspiracy existed on the part of many of the most gifted members of the legal profession to take advantage of the technicalities of the law and the conservatism of the courts to render measures of social and economic reform sterile or abortive. “Because representative government, in order to succeed, must act through the processes of law, it Is necessary for it to attain a high degree of co-opera-tion among its three co-ordinate branches." . The President declared that first among the shortcomings of th© compromise measure was that it left ‘ entirely untouched any method of relieving the burden now imposed on the Supreme Court.” The Bill provided no increase in the personnel of the lower courts, which, he said, was “confessedly necessary,” and no effective means for assigning district judges to pressure areas. Moreover, he continued, it failed to set up flexible machinery with methods of administration readily adaptable to needs as they arise; offered no remedy for the crowded conditions of dockets in lower courts; gave no assurance for a flow of new blood to any of the Federal benches, and left untouched the problem of “aged and inflrm judges who fail to take advantage of the opportunity accorded them to retire or resign on full pay.” Necessary Objectives. To this recitation of flaws, Mr. Roosevelt added that “all of these are objectives which are of necessity a part of any complete and rounded plan for the reform of judicial processes.” The President approved the stipulation that notice be given to the Attor-ney-General when constitutional questions were involved in private litigation.

“This-accords the Government the right to defend the constitutionality of the law of the land,” he said. “No longer must the Government stand idly by, a helpless spectator, while Acts of Congress are stricken down by the courts.” The statement referred'to the "intolerable situations created by the reckless granting by the lower courts of injunctions Government officials in the operations of Federal statutes,” and reflected an expectation of improvement in this regard. As to the compromise measure, as far as it went, Mr. Roosevelt declared that its provisions were a part of the original and rejected court plan or were consistent with it.

The statement brought an almost immediate response on Capitol Hill from the few remaining Senators who participated on one side or the other in the Congressional battle over the court plan, which ended in complete route of its advocates. White House sources explained that the President’s statement could be accepted as a pronouncement that the compromise was acceptable only as "a stepping stone” to his objectives, without any indication as to when the fight might be renewed in Congress. Elsewhere in administrative circles, however, it was said the President, probably would not see judicial reorganisation by trying to add six new judges of the high-court.