The Green Bag 'olume XXIII
February, 1911
Number 2
The Re-organized Supreme Court THE promotion of Mr. Justice Ed
ward Douglass White of New Orleans to the Chief Justiceship of the United States Supreme Court has given general satisfaction as a thoroughly non-partisan appointment, fitly recog nizing the attainments of one of the Justices of largest experience and most commanding ability. It would be in vidious to speak of the Chief Justice as the ablest man on the Supreme Court bench, for that would unjustly belittle the talents of at least two or three others whose work has been of the highest
juristic order, but it is assuredly safe to say that the new head of the Court is excelled by none of his associates in the qualities that go to make up a great lawyer and judge, and that the honor descends upon one readily conceived as primus terestinginter to pares. note that Moreover Senator itBorah, is in— himself a great lawyer, when asked his opinion of the Chief Justice, declared with deliberation: “If you were called upon to name the first ten of the men
who have sat upon the Supreme Court bench since its creation, you would have to include White's name in the list.
Otherwise the list would be incorrect.” The cast of the new Chief Justice's
mind, and his general attitude toward constitutional questions, are indicated by his record with regard to several im
portant cases. He wrote the opinion which practically killed the commodi ties clause of the Hepburn railroad act, all the Court concurring except Mr. Justice Harlan. Together with Mr. Justice Holmes, he dissented in the case
of Continental Wall Paper Co. v. Voight, which held that a corporation rendered illegal by the Sherman act has no stand ing in court for the collection of debts. He voted with the minority of the Court in the Northern Securities case, and with
the majority in the Knight case. He was one of the judges declaring the Employers’ Liability act unconstitu tional, Justices Harlan, McKenna and Holmes dissenting. He wrote the ex tremely able dissenting judgment in the
Income Tax cases. Though he had been a strong anti-Imperialist, his independ ence was shown when he was one of
five of the nine judges who decided in the insular cases that the Constitution does not follow the flag. He wrote the opinion in the famous Haddock divorce case. The President in this appointment departed from precedent, no Associate Justice having ever before in the his
tory of the Court been promoted to be Chief Justice. The Legal Intell/i gencer of
Philadelphia has expressed
a. doubt whether this departure from precedent was wise, no reflection on Mr.
