U 1 « * CSE UNITED STATES REPORTS VOLUME 340 CASES ADJUDGED IN THE SUPREME COURT AT OCTOBER TERM, 1950 From October 2, 1950, Through March 27, 1951 WALTER WYATT reporter UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1951 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. - Price $3.00 (Buckram) 3 a 6' 4- Cf sj i y. 3^-o Errata. 101 U. S. 273, line 12, “admissible” should be “inadmissible”. 309 U. S. 34, line 27, “sustaining” should be “invalidating”. 331 U. S. 316, last line of text, there should be a comma after “traffic”. 338 U. S. 801, line 3 of caption, the date should be “February 13, 1950.” 338 U. S. 874: In No. 15, Mise., the citation is to an earlier decision in the same case. The decision as to which certiorari was denied is not reported. 339 U. S. 951: In No. 294, Mise., the citation to the unofficial report of the decision below should be “179 F. 2d 466.” 339 U. S. 977: In No. 766, the citation to the official report of the decision below should be “86 U. S. App. D. C. 248”. n JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT DURING THE TIME OF THESE REPORTS. FRED M. VINSON, Chief Justice. HUGO L. BLACK, Associate Justice. STANLEY REED, Associate Justice. FELIX FRANKFURTER, Associate Justice. WILLIAM 0. DOUGLAS, Associate Justice. ROBERT H. JACKSON, Associate Justice. HAROLD H. BURTON, Associate Justice. TOM C. CLARK, Associate Justice. SHERMAN MINTON, Associate Justice. J. HOWARD McGRATH, Attorney General. PHILIP B. PERLMAN, Solicitor General. CHARLES ELMORE CROPLEY, Clerk. WALTER WYATT, Reporter. THOMAS ENNALLS WAGGAMAN, Marshal. HELEN NEWMAN, Librarian. in SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. Allotment of Justices. It is ordered that the following allotment be made of the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of this Court among the circuits, pursuant to Title 28, United States Code, section 42, and that such allotment be entered of record, viz: For the District of Columbia Circuit, Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice. For the First Circuit, Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice. For the Second Circuit, Robert H. Jackson, Associate Justice. For the Third Circuit, Harold H. Burton, Associate Justice. For the Fourth Circuit, Fred M. Vinson, Chief Justice. For the Fifth Circuit, Hugo L. Black, Associate Justice. For the Sixth Circuit, Stanley Reed, Associate Justice. For the Seventh Circuit, Sherman Minton, Associate Justice. For the Eighth Circuit, Tom C. Clark, Associate Justice. For the Ninth Circuit, William 0. Douglas, Associate Justice. For the Tenth Circuit, Tom C. Clark, Associate Justice. October 14, 1949. (For next previous allotment, see 337 U. S. p. iv.) IV PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Jn Wcmorjj of Wr. Justice Wlurphu1 TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1951 Present: Mr. Chief Justice Vinson, Mr. Justice Black, Mr. Justice Reed, Mr. Justice Frankfurter, Mr. Justice Douglas, Mr. Justice Jackson, Mr. Justice Burton, Mr. Justice Clark, and Mr. Justice Minton. Mr. Solicitor General Perlman addressed the Court as follows: May it please the Court: At a meeting of members of the Bar of the Supreme Court, held this morning,2 resolutions expressing their profound sorrow at the death of Justice Frank Murphy were offered by a committee, of which the Honorable Benjamin V. Cohen was chairman.3 1 Mr. Justice Murphy died at Detroit, Michigan, on July 19, 1949. Funeral services were held in Our Lady of Lake Huron Church, and interment was in Rock Falls Cemetery, Harbor Beach, Michigan, on July 22, 1949. See 338 U. S. pp. hi-iv, vn. 2 The Committee on Arrangements for the meeting of the Bar consisted of Solicitor General Philip B. Perlman, Chairman, Honorable Ira W. Jayne, Honorable Frank A. Picard, Dean E. Blythe Stason, and Honorable G. Mennen Williams. 3 The Committee on Resolutions consisted of Mr. Benjamin V. Cohen, Chairman, Mr. John J. Adams, Mr. Thurman Arnold, Mr. Francis Biddle, Mr. James Crawford Biggs, Mr. Prentiss M. Brown, Mr. Wm. Marshall Bullitt, Mr. George J. Burke, Justice George E. Bushnell, Mr. James F. Byrnes, Mr. John T. Cahill, Judge William J. Campbell, Mr. Emanuel Celler, Mr. James A. Cobb, Mr. Archibald Cox, Mr. Myron C. Cramer, Mr. Homer S. Cummings, Mr. Walter J. Cummings, Jr., Mr. Joseph E. Davies, Mr. John W. Davis, Mr. John R. Dykema, Mr. John S. Flannery, Mr. Edward H. Foley, Jr., V VI MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. Addresses were made to the Bar by Edward G. Kemp, Esquire, who was closely associated with the late Justice through most of his career, Judge Charles Fahy of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Thurgood Marshall, Chief Counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.4 The resolutions, adopted unanimously, are as follows: RESOLUTIONS We of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States are gathered here to commemorate the life and works of Mr. Justice Murphy, whose untimely death occurred in Detroit, Michigan, on July 19, 1949. The brief words of tribute uttered today can give but inadequate expression to the great qualities of his mind and heart. His life was indeed an abundant one, dedicated to the noblest and highest traditions of our civilization. In every step of his varied career of public service, he exhibited a passionate and selfless regard for the rights of his fellow men. We do well, therefore, to reflect upon the life of one who has enriched the history of the Court and of the Nation. Frank Murphy was born in the village of Sand Beach, now the city of Harbor Beach, Michigan, on April 13, 1890, the third of four children of John F. and Mary Mr. John P. Frank, Mr. William L. Frierson, Mr. James W. Gerard, Mr. Eugene Gressman, Mr. Abraham J. Harris, Mr. Edward J. Hayes, Mr. Edwin E. Huddleson, Mr. Joseph B. Keenan, Mr. Isadore Levin, Mr. Norman M. Littell, Mr. George A. Malcolm, Mr. Francis P. Matthews, Judge Thomas F. McAllister, Mr. Kenneth Dobson Miller, Mr. Gilbert H. Montague, Mr. Thomas F. Moriarty, Mr. Robert P. Patterson, Mr. George Wharton Pepper, Mr. John H. Pickering, Mr. William J. Schrenk, Jr., Judge Raymond W. Starr, Mr. J. R. Swenson, Mr. Myron C. Taylor, Mr. Maurice J. Tobin, Mr. Thomas L. Tolan, Jr., Mr. John Patrick Walsh, Mr. Charles Warren, and Mr. James K. Watkins. 4 It is understood that these addresses will be published privately in a memorial volume to be prepared under the supervision of Mr. Charles Elmore Cropley, Clerk of this Court. MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. vn Brennan Murphy. The father was respected as an able lawyer and as a public-spirited citizen in Huron County; he served two terms as prosecuting attorney and achieved notable success in jury cases as a private practitioner. He was also the leading Democrat in an overwhelmingly Republican community. From him the young Frank acquired an interest in law and politics, a rugged spirit of independence and a capacity for leadership. The spirituality and gentleness of the mother were of the rarest quality and it was she who endowed Frank Murphy with his deep religious conscience. The Bible which she gave him when he was graduated from high school he carried with him to his dying day and upon it he took the oaths of the high offices which he attained. His parents, devout Catholics of Irish stock, inculcated in Frank Murphy not only deep faith in his religion and genuine pride in his ancestry, but an unusual sense of security regarding his religion and ancestry. He never felt that his own religion could be hurt by the peaceful rivalry of other faiths. Nor did he think that he could add a cubit to his own pride of ancestry by disparaging that of others. From his parents he learned at an early age that true self-respect involves an abiding respect and tolerance for the rights of others, a principle that was to have a profound influence upon his political as well as his judicial work. The early education of Justice Murphy was acquired in the public schools of Harbor Beach. There he demonstrated his natural talents as a student, an orator, an athlete, and a leader of his fellows. These talents he carried with him to the University of Michigan, where he pursued his undergraduate studies and received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1914. Following his admission to the Michigan Bar in 1914, he began work as a law clerk with the Detroit firm of Monaghan & Monaghan and he quickly received recognition as a promising trial lawyer. During his first years at the Bar he also taught at the Detroit College of Law. VIII MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. Soon after the entry of the United States into World War I, Justice Murphy sought active service in the Army where he served as a first lieutenant and later as a captain in the Fourth and Eighty-fifth Infantry Divisions. After the Armistice he served with the occupation army in the German Rhineland. Upon his discharge from the service, he continued his legal studies at Lincoln’s Inn, London, and Trinity College, Dublin. In Ireland the growth and vitality of the movement for independence enlisted his keen and sympathetic interest, and his understanding of that movement was to be of invaluable assistance to him in later years in his work with the leaders of the Philippine movement for independence. He returned to the United States in 1919 and became Chief Assistant in the office of the United States District Attorney in Detroit. It is said that in this capacity he lost practically no cases among the many in which he participated. Notable was his work in obtaining convictions for graft and fraud against the Government on large war contracts. He also assisted the Government in the successful prosecution of the condemnation proceedings resulting in the widening of the River Rouge and which in later years made possible the development of the vast River Rouge plant of the Ford Motor Company. It was in the election of 1920 that he made his first and unsuccessful bid for public office, the office of Congressman from the First District of Michigan. A Wilsonian Democrat, he was defeated in the Republican landslide. After his service in the District Attorney’s office, a brief interlude of private law practice in Detroit ensued. In 1923, in a spirited campaign, he was elected to the Recorder’s Court, a criminal court of Detroit. Judge Murphy took an active interest in the administrative affairs of the court. He helped to make the psychopathic clinic and probation department indispensable, nonpolitical adjuncts of the court. The most noteworthy trial that he presided over was the Sweet murder case growing out of bitter racial tensions. MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. ix Dr. Sweet, a Negro, had established his home in a neighborhood previously reserved for whites. A threatening mob gathered near his home, frightening him and other Negroes with him. Shots were fired. A white man was killed. Dr. Sweet and several other Negroes were indicted for murder. Public feeling was inflamed against them. To administer justice in these circumstances required more than a mere crusader’s zeal; it required more than book-learning. It required courage, human understanding, dignity, and a grasp of the essential principles of criminal procedure. At the trial young Judge Murphy showed that he possessed all these qualities in good measure. It is important to recall not only that the trial resulted in the acquittal of the defendants in face of public clamor, but that the community, despite its original hostility, was convinced that the trial was fairly, conducted from the standpoint of the community as well as the defendants. Clarence Darrow, counsel for the defendants, later remarked that Murphy was “a judge who not only seemed human, but . . . proved to be the kindliest and most understanding man I have ever happened to meet on the bench.” In 1929, he was reelected to the Recorder’s Court. A year later he resigned to become the successful candidate for the office of Mayor of Detroit. As chief executive of a great industrial city struck by the full force of unemployment and depression he recognized the importance of making all citizens conscious of their interest in the continued maintenance of the orderly processes of government. His bold advocacy of the principle of government responsibility for the destitute attracted Nation-wide attention. At the same time, however, he pursued a program of rigid economy in other services of the city government. He succeeded in fulfilling his campaign pledge that “not one deserving man or woman shall go hungry in Detroit because of circumstances beyond his control.” Public appreciation of his efforts was demonstrated in 1931 by his reelection as Mayor. X MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. In 1933 he was appointed by President Roosevelt to the post of Governor General of the Philippines. He quickly gained the confidence of the Filipino people and their leaders. Because he believed in them and in their right to freedom, they believed in him and eagerly sought his counsel long after he had left the Philippines. With the inauguration of the Commonwealth Government in 1935 he became the first United States High Commissioner of the Philippines. During his three years of service in the Philippines he was instrumental in placing the fiscal affairs of the government in good order and instituted several needed social reforms, including the modern probation system and public health services. Frank Murphy returned home in 1936 to become the successful candidate for Governor of the State of Michigan. He assumed office on January 1, 1937, and was immediately confronted with the grave problems arising out of the historic sit-down strike then in progress at the Flint plant of the General Motors Corporation. His insistence that peaceful methods be exhausted before resort to force made him the center of Nation-wide attention and controversy. Some thought that he was condoning the flouting of the law, yet he never attempted to justify or condone the sit-down strike. He delayed sending troops into the plant when the strikers refused to obey a court order so that a peaceful settlement could be obtained which would avoid the use of force that he feared would result in bloodshed and resentment rather than respect for law. He continuously sought to convince the strike leaders that it was their duty to obey the law and within a few days a peaceful settlement was obtained. Frank Murphy was profoundly convinced that collective bargaining and the settlement of labor disputes through direct negotiation of employer and employee representatives were fundamental prerequisites to our ultimate industrial and economic welfare, and even to the preservation of our system of government. In the bitter dispute at Flint, and in those which followed, he saw a MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. XI serious threat to these objectives. Men may differ as to the wisdom and propriety of his patient restraint. But both management and labor now testify that Governor Murphy’s humane action prevented bloodshed. And it seems fair to say that by avoiding the use of force he strengthened the processes of peaceful settlement of industrial disputes. During his term as Governor many reforms were accomplished—among these a civil-service law, an occupational-disease law, a modernized corrections system, a mental hygiene program, a modernized central accounting system, and an expanded old-age assistance program. He also initiated studies with a view to the modernization of the State government, the reorganization of the tax structure, and the stabilization of the milk industry. He was defeated for reelection in 1938 but his great talents did not lie fallow. On January 1, 1939, President Roosevelt announced his appointment as Attorney General of the United States. Impressed by the growing threat of totalitarianism to our free world he had hoped to be given a position in which he could take an active part in building up our armed strength, but like a good soldier he accepted the post to which he was assigned. During the year that he served as the Nation’s chief law officer he accomplished much of more than transient importance and value. Notable appointments to the Federal bench were made on his recommendation. He proceeded firmly against corruption in the judiciary and other high public offices. He set up a committee on Administrative Law under the Chairmanship of Dean Acheson whose work has had a great effect on the development of administrative law and practice. He also set up a committee on the administration of the Bankruptcy Act under the Chairmanship of Francis M. Shea and its recommendations led to important changes and improvements in the administration of insolvent estates in the Federal courts. A Civil Rights Section was established in the Criminal Division of the Department to encourage XII MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. more vigorous use of the civil rights statutes and to centralize responsibility for their enforcement; in 1947 the President’s Committee on Civil Rights stated that “the total achievement of the Department of Justice in the civil rights field during the period of the Section’s existence goes well beyond anything that had previously been accomplished.” Attorney General Murphy was nominated to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Roosevelt on January 4, 1940, and he took his seat on the Court on February 5, 1940 (309 U. S. in). Frank Murphy thus brought to the Supreme Court uniquely significant talents and experiences. He brought to it a thorough and practical understanding of the interests and longings of masses of men and women in a highly mechanized society, an alert sensitiveness to the individual rights of a free people, an exceptional comprehension of the respective roles of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our Government, an acute awareness of the social and economic wrongs, and a determination to translate our constitutional and legal ideals into judicial reality. Justice Murphy’s labors on the Supreme Court bore rich fruit. In the decade of his association with the Court, he made a contribution that will forever be enshrined in the hearts of those devoted to the preservation and advancement of individual liberties. Time and again he spoke eloquently on behalf of the constitutional and legal rights of the accused, the unpopular, and the oppressed. Sometimes he spoke on behalf of the Court, sometimes for a minority of the Court, and not infrequently he spoke alone. But always he reflected a humane and an understanding sense of justice. His forthright and eloquent defense of the rights of nonconforming individuals and groups, and his burning condemnation of racism, long will cheer and inspire defenders of freedom in a troubled world. His ability to rise above the popular passions of the moment to affirm the eternal MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. XIII virtues of freedom despite the transient emotions engendered by crisis and war will long stand as an example of judicial fearlessness. At the same time, the Justice was more than a humanitarian in his judicial labors. He was a hard-headed realist, a courageous fighter for his beliefs in all matters of judicial importance. And he helped to shape significant developments in the fields of constitutional law, labor law, administrative law, Federal-State relationships, and in numerous other aspects of the Court’s jurisdiction. But he will probably be remembered, as he would probably want to be remembered, for his defense of human rights and freedoms under the Constitution. While he recognized the limited role of the judiciary in a democratic society, he believed and acted vigorously and constantly on the belief that the protection of the fundamental rights of the individual to freedom of thought, speech, and religion was essential to the preservation of democracy. He was concerned to protect the individual from the abuse of both political and economic power. It is accordingly resolved that we express our deep sorrow at the untimely death of Mr. Justice Murphy and our grateful recognition of the enduring contribution made by him to the humanizing of the law, to the vindication of human rights, and to the preservation of the ideal of freedom. It is further resolved that the Attorney General be asked to present these resolutions to the Court and to request that they be permanently inscribed upon its record. Mr. Attorney General McGrath addressed the Court as follows: May it please the Court: The Resolutions which have just been read, and the addresses which were delivered earlier this morning before the Bar of this Court, have described how the late Justice Frank Murphy devoted almost his entire adult life to a most distinguished career XIV MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. of public service. That career is one to which fruitful consideration will be devoted at far greater length than is possible in these proceedings. I speak with personal knowledge, as it was my great privilege to have close associations with him during the major part of his public service. I came to know and value him when he was the Mayor of Detroit, and our friendship continued when he was Governor of Michigan and when he was Governor General of the Philippines. I was United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island during the period when Justice Murphy was Attorney General of the United States, and, being an officer of the Justice Department, of which the Attorney General is the head, our duties brought us into frequent contact. After Justice Murphy became a member of this Court I appeared here as Solicitor General of the United States. So it is that I am here, not only to pay a deserved tribute to a predecessor in the office I now hold, but also to speak of one who was my own chief in the Department of Justice, and who was my personal friend over a long period of years. It is, I believe, rare, indeed, that one who takes part in such ceremonies in an official capacity is privileged to bring to the occasion such an intimate and personal knowledge as I do of the departed Justice in whose memory we are gathered here today. Justice Murphy was not one of those who thought that the only necessary or proper support for judicial action was a carefully constructed edifice of precedent. He by no means ignored the past; he accorded it all the respect that he felt was its due. But his realistic humanitarianism convinced him that the problems of today must be handled in a manner that will resolve them practically. He found abhorrent and incomprehensible the idea that old forms, which might indeed have contributed effectively to the attainment of justice in the past, should be permitted to govern in current cases where their operation seemed to him to result only in injustice. “The law MR. JUSTICE MURPHY. xv knows no finer hour,” he wrote in his dissent in the Falbo case,1 “than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution.” Similarly, in his concurring opinion in the Hooven