In re Summers

by the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

325 U.S. 561

IN RE SUMMERS

Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Illinois

No. 205.  Argued: Apr. 27, 30, 1945 --- Decided: June 11, 1945

1. The Illinois Supreme Court's refusal, on the merits, of petitioner's application for admission to the practice of law, although the matter was not regarded by that court as a judicial proceeding, held to involve a case or controversy within the judicial power under Art. III, § 1, c. 1 of the Federal Constitution. P. 566.

2. Refusal of an application for admission to the practice of law in a State, on the ground that the applicant would be unable in good faith to take the required oath to support the constitution of the State, because of conscientious scruples resulting in unwillingness to serve in the state militia in time of war, held not a denial of any right of the applicant under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitution. P. 571.

Affirmed.

CERTIORARI, 323 U.S. 705, to review the action of the Supreme Court of Illinois in refusing petitioner's application for admission to the bar.

Mr. Julien Cornell, with whom Messrs. Alfred T. Carton, Charles Liebman and Arthur Garfield Hayes were on the brief, for petitioner.

[p562] William C. Wines, Assistant Attorney General of Illinois, with whom George F. Barrett, Attorney General, was on the brief, for the Justices of the Supreme Court of Illinois, respondents.

Messrs. Harold Evans, Ernest Angell, Claude C. Smith and Thomas Raeburn White filed a brief on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, as amicus curiae, in support of petitioner.

Notes