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Constitutional Law in 1947–48: The Constitutional Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in the October Term, 1947

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

David Fellman
David Fellman
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

There were no changes in the personnel of the Court during the 1947 term. The former Chief Justice, Charles Evans Hughes, Avho had retired from the Court on July 1, 1941, died on August 27, 1948. Justice Hughes had served on the Court from May 2, 1910, to June 10, 1916, and was appointed Chief Justice on February 13,1930, succeeding William Howard Taft. In characteristic fashion, the justices filed during the 1947 term a very large number of dissenting and concurring opinions liberally salted with spirited and often bitter judicial invective.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , April 1949 , pp. 275 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1949

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References

1 For an excellent summary of the general tendencies of recent years, see Pritchett, C. Herman, The Roosevelt Court (New York, 1948)Google Scholar.

2 333 U.S. 138 (1948).

3 Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co., 251 U.S. 146 (1919).

4 334 U.S. 742 (1948).

5 335 U.S. 160 (1948).

6 332 U.S. 469 (1947). A World War I precedent was a principal authority, United States v. Chemical Foundation, 272 U.S. 1 (1926).

7 In Clark v. Uebersee Finanz-Korporation, 332 U.S. 480 (1947), the Court held that a friendly alien has a statutory right to sue the Alien Property Custodian to reclaim property, upon a showing of an absence of enemy interest.

8 332 U.S. 689 (1948).

9 McDermott v. Wisconsin, 228 U.S. 115 (1913).

10 333 U.S. 153 (1948).

11 333 U.S. 445 (1948).

12 Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938).

13 333 U.S. 426 (1948).

14 333 U.S. 103 (1948).

15 332 U.S. 442 (1947).

16 Falbo v. United States, 320 U.S. 549 (1944).

17 Estep v. United States, 327 U.S. 114 (1946).

18 The Court distinguished Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276 (1922). This case held that an alleged alien was entitled to a judicial trial on the issue of alienage in habeas corpus proceedings, since the alleged citizen could not get a hearing before the Commissioner of Immigration, whereas here the parties had as full a hearing as they desired.

19 333 U.S. 483 (1948).

20 332 U.S. 380 (1947).

21 335 U.S. 106 (1948).

22 332 U.S. 581 (1948). See “Searches and Seizures: 1948.” University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 15, pp. 950–959 (Summer, 1948)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925).

24 333 U.S. 10 (1948).

25 334 U.S. 699 (1948).

26 Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145 (1947).

27 335 U.S. 1 (1948).

28 332 U.S. 708 (1948).

29 334 U.S. 672 (1948).

30 Ex parte Hawk, 321 U.S. 114 (1944).

31 Two interesting issues relating to the procedural side of habeas corpus, one of which was new, are discussed at length in Price v. Johnston, 334 U.S. 266 (1948), decided by a five-to-four vote.

32 334 U.S. 624 (1948).

33 333 U.S. 740 (1948).

34 Massachusetts v. United States, 333 U.S. 611 (1948).

35 Rodgers v. United States, 332 U.S. 371 (1947). The Court had previously ruled that a criminal penalty does not bear interest. Pierce v. United States, 255 U.S. 398 (1921).

36 Public Clearing House v. Coyne, 194 U.S. 497 (1904).

37 Donaldson v. Read Magazine, 333 U.S. 178 (1948).

38 Delgadillo v. Carmichael, 332 U.S. 388 (1947).

39 Fong Haw Tan v. Phelan, 333 U.S. 6 (1948).

40 United States v. Brown, 333 U.S. 18 (1948).

41 334 U.S. 100 (1948). A companion case, involving substantially identical issues, was Schine Chain Theatres v. United States, 334 U.S. 110 (1948).

42 United States v. U. S. Steel Corporation, 251 U.S. 417 (1920).

43 334 U.S. 131 (1948).

44 334 U.S. 219 (1948).

45 United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U.S. 1 (1895).

46 Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911); United States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U.S. 106 (1911); Shreveport Rate Case, 234 U.S. 342 (1914).

47 Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341 (1943), was distinguished on the ground that there the agricultural production program was sponsored by the state of California, and not by private parties.

48 332 U.S. 422 (1947).

49 United States v. Yellow Cab Co., 332 U.S. 218 (1947).

50 United States v. Line Material Co., 333 U.S. 287 (1948); United States v. U. S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364 (1948); International Salt Co. v. United States, 332 U.S. 392 (1947).

51 Federal Trade Commission v. Cement Institute, 333 U.S. 683 (1948).

52 United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U.S. 495 (1948).

53 United States v. Elgin, J. & E. R. Co., 298 U.S. 492 (1936).

54 United States v. South Buffalo R. Co., 333 U.S. 771 (1948).

55 Other decisions involving interpretations of statutes dealing with interstate commerce were: Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. Daniel, 333 U.S. 118 (1948), holding that a Virginia railroad corporation need not secure a South Carolina charter to engage in interstate commerce in that state, when the Interstate Commerce Commission has ruled that compliance with the South Carolina law would entail substantial delay and needless expense; United States v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 333 U.S. 169 (1948), holding that a stockyards company owning a segment of railroad track linking up portions of a railroad-owned spur affording access to private sidetracks comes within the scope of the anti-discrimination clause of the Interstate Commerce Act; Federal Trade Commission v. Morton Salt Co., 334 U.S. 37 (1948), sustaining a Commission cease-and-desist order against quantity discounts as being in violation of the Robinson-Patman Act.

56 333 U.S. 203 (1948).

57 Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947).

58 ProfessorCorwin, E. S. disagrees with this interpretation. “The Supreme Court as National School Board,” Thought, Vol. 23, pp. 665–683 (Dec., 1948)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 The majority opinions were denounced by the Administrative Board of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in a statement published November 20, 1948, over the signatures of four cardinals and ten bishops, as a victory for “doctrinaire secularism,” as an “entirely novel and ominously extensive” interpretation of the First Amendment, and as paying “scant attention to logic, history, or accepted norms of legal interpretation.” The statement was printed in full by the New York Times. For a contrary statement, see Oxnam, Bishop G. Bromley, “Church, State, and Schools,” The Nation, Vol. 168, pp. 67–70 (Jan. 15, 1949)Google Scholar.

60 334 U.S. 558 (1948). Books published during the past year touching upon this and kindred subjects include: Corwin, E. S., Liberty Against Government (Baton Rouge, La., 1948)Google Scholar; Gerald, J. E., The Press and the Constitution (Minneapolis, 1948)Google Scholar; Meiklejohn, Alexander, Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government (New York, 1948)Google Scholar; and Holcombe, A. N., Human Rights-in the Modern World (New York, 1948)Google Scholar.

61 333 U.S. 507 (1948).

62 332 U.S. 742 (1948).

63 332 U.S. 596 (1948).

64 335 U.S. 252 (1948).

65 333 U.S. 640 (1948).

66 304 U.S. 458 (1938).

67 Gryger v. Burke, 334 U.S. 728 (1948).

68 Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736 (1948).

69 Marino v. Ragen, 332 U.S. 561 (1947). In a concurring opinion, Justice Rutledge scathingly denounced the intricate Illinois procedures available in these cases as a “merry-go-round,” and as “a procedural strangling of federal constitutional rights.” See also Loftus v. Illinois, 334 U.S. 804 (1948).

70 333 U.S. 257 (1948).

71 Parker v. Illinois, 333 U.S. 571 (1948). Three justices dissented in the belief that “hypertechnical procedural obstructions” nullified constitutional rights.

72 Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U.S. 196 (1948).

73 Paterno v. Lyons, 334 U.S. 314 (1948).

74 333 U.S. 95 (1948).

75 333 U.S. 541 (1948).

76 334 U.S. 1 (1948). The government entered the case as amicus; its brief, which is a noteworthy document, has been published. Clark, Tom C. and Perlman, Philip B., Prejudice and Property (Washington, D. C., 1948)Google Scholar.

77 109 U.S. 3 (1883).

78 334 U.S. 24 (1948).

79 332 U.S. 633 (1948).

80 Terrace v. Thompson, 263 U.S. 197 (1923); Porterfield v. Webb, 263 U.S. 225 (1923); Webb v. O'Brien, 263 U.S. 313 (1923); Frick v. Webb, 263 U.S. 326 (1923).

81 334 U.S. 410 (1948).

82 332 U.S. 631 (1948).

83 Fisher v. Hurst, 333 U.S. 147 (1948). Justice Murphy thought that a hearing should be had on the issue of whether there had been compliance with the Court's mandate, and Justice Rutledge was certain that the Oklahoma courts had not followed the mandate. He wrote: “Obviously no separate law school could be established elsewhere overnight capable of giving petitioner a legal education equal to that afforded by the state's long-established and well-known state university law school.” The Oklahoma district court recently held hearings on this point. See Bunn, Harriet, “Ada Sipuel's Second Try,” The Nation, Vol. 167, pp. 316–317 (Sept. 18, 1948)Google Scholar.

84 333 U.S. 565 (1948).

85 Fay v. New York, 332 U.S. 261 (1947).

86 332 U.S. 463 (1947).

87 334 U.S. 717 (1948).

88 The Court relied mainly upon Oklahoma Tax Commission v. United States, 319 U.S. 598 (1943), and Helvering v. Mountain Producers Corp., 303 U.S. 376 (1938).

89 333 U.S. 28 (1948). For an interesting comment on this case, see “State Regulation of Commerce; A Functional Test,” Columbia Law Review, Vol. 48, pp. 773–779 (July, 1948)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

90 Cooley v. Board of Port Wardens, 12 How. 299 (1851).

91 Hall v. De Cuir, 95 U.S. 485 (1878).

92 Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946).

93 332 U.S. 507 (1947).

94 334 U.S. 385 (1948). For a recent competent survey, see Cahill, Fred V. Jr., “State Taxation of Interstate Commerce,” Oregon Law Review, Vol. 27, pp. 97–129 (Feb., 1948)Google Scholar.

95 United States v. California, 332 U.S. 19 (1947).

96 Geer v. Connecticut, 161 U.S. 519 (1896).

97 335 U.S. 80 (1948).

98 Aero Mayflower Transit Co. v. Board of Railroad Commissioners of Montana, 332 U.S. 495 (1947).

99 Central Greyhound Lines v. Mealey, 334 U.S. 653 (1948).

100 334 U.S. 343 (1948).

101 Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U.S. 226 (1945).

102 Andrews v. Andrews, 188 U.S. 14 (1903), was overruled in so far as it conflicts with this decision.

103 334 U.S. 541 (1948).

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