Word: harlan
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...constitutional rights. In keeping with its longtime practice of sidestepping constitutional questions whenever possible, the court decided the case on the narrower ground of authorization. But in an opinion shared by Associate Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan and Potter Stewart (Justices Felix Frankfurter, John Marshall Harlan and Charles Evans Whittaker wrote a more limited concurrence). Chief Justice Warren seemed to warn that any authorized program that did not contain some provision for confrontation and cross-examination might violate "certain principles relatively immutable in our jurisprudence," i.e., be unconstitutional...
...lone dissenter was Justice Tom Clark, who disagreed so strenuously that Justice John Marshall Harlan chided him for succumbing to the "temptations of colorful characterization." Argued Clark, from the perspective of a longtime (1945-49) U.S. Attorney General: "Surely one does not have a constitutional right to have access to the Government's military secrets . . . No one reading the [majority] opinion will doubt that ... its broad sweep speaks in prophecy. Let us hope the winds may change. If they do not, the present temporary debacle will turn into a rout of our internal security...
Government officials, said Justice John Marshall Harlan for .the majority in a historic, 5-to-4 decision, "should be free to exercise their duties unembarrassed by the fear of damage suits . . . which might appreciably inhibit the fearless, vigorous and effective administration of policies." So saying, the Court extended to all policymaking federal officials a rule that it had applied to Cabinet officers back in 1896: they have "absolute privilege" in making statements on "matters committed by law to [their] control or supervision," meaning that they are immune from libel suits even if a statement is malicious and false...
Concurring Justices hastened to add some obiter dicta. Felix Frankfurter, "as one whose taste in art and literature hardly qualifies him for the avant-garde," doubted that the picture would have offended even "Victorian moral sensibilities." Said Justice John Marshall Harlan, who felt that Lady should not be banned, even though he also felt that the Supreme Court had moved too swiftly in striking down the New York statute: "I cannot regard this film as depicting anything more than a somewhat unusual, and rather pathetic, 'love triangle...
...TIME, June 22), the Supreme Court called off the holiday by rejecting seven appeals based on the Jencks ruling. Written by Justice Felix Frankfurter (joined by Tom Clark, John Marshall Harlan, Charles Evans Whittaker, Potter Stewart), the main opinion in the seven cases upheld a statute passed by Congress in 1957 to narrow the Jencks decision. Its basic rules...