The Editor’s Bag
A MERIT APPOINTMENT T was with genuine pleasure that we
‘
court rich in ability and in learning. We have long admired the opinions
viewed the promotion of Mr. Justice White to the exalted office of Chief
of the Chief Justice, but we have also admired those of Mr. Justice Harlan and at least one other Associate Justice
Justice of the United States.
To begin
whom it would be invidious to name.
with, we confess to a wholly unpre tended and ineradicable admiration for
Personal comparisons are not always delicate, and it is sufficient to say that
the largeness of mind, heart, character
Mr. Justice Harlan would have made an acceptable Chief Justice. At all events, the appointment went to one on whom force of intellect combined with dignity of office cannot fail to bestow the real leadership of the Court. The opinion was expressed in the Editor's Bag a few months ago that Mr. Justice Hughes’ promotion would be amply justified by his executive ability and comparative youth, and there is
and learning of the new head of the American judiciary. The appointment must be gratifying to all who feel that a great lawyer should preside over the
Court and that the Chief Justice should not merely direct its business but should dominate its opinions and mould its policy. It is commonly said, to be sure, that the powers of the Chief justice are no greater than those of his associates, but the post is one of com nothing in that view to retract; but manding influence, and if the Chief Mr. Justice White's promotion showed a Justice is a jurist of first rank he can different and in our judgment a higher hardly fail to exercise/more real and conception of the functions of the more lasting power than any other officer Chief-Justiceship, and it was altogether of the United States. We believe it proper that one of the older and more to have been the intent of the framers experienced judges should take pre of the Constitution that this power cedence of a new and untried member. should be exercised, and if it had been In some quarters the opinion has more steadily exercised in the past no been expressed that the promotion of one can deny that the traditions of the an Associate Justice may constitute a Court would have been enriched and dangerous precedent. If Mr. Justice increased coherence would have been Hughes should some day succeed Chief given to the course of judicial decision. Justice White, we are nevertheless We have no desire, however, to sceptical as to whether a precedent exaggerate the abilities of the new would be created which would bind the Chief Justice at the expense of those action of future Presidents. All pre of his associates. It is not easy to cedents were disregarded by Mr. Taft single out the greatest urist from -a in making this appointment, yet he
