Word: moores
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Reed's troubles began to mount when the Supreme Court sat down to hear arguments on the case of Lee Moor v. Texas & New Orleans R.R. Co. Lee Moor is a Texas farmer with 3,500 acres, of which he normally devotes about 1,600 to growing cotton. Last year he grew some 2,700 bales of cotton, but, under the Bankhead Act, he was allotted a quota of only 855 bales, for which he was given tax-free tags...
...Farmer Moor sued the railroad to make it transport his cotton on the ground that the Bankhead Act was unconstitutional. Courts upheld the railroad on the ground that Plaintiff Moor either should have paid his tax first and then sued to recover from the Government, if the law was unconstitutional, or sued the railroad for damages...
Last week Thornton Hardie, El Paso lawyer, got up to explain to the Supreme Court why Farmer Moor had not paid his tax: He could not; he was already in debt; if he had plunked down $45,000 to pay the tax he would have had to go out of business long before the constitutionality of the law was settled. "If a man has a pig by the hind leg," said Texan Hardie, "he can't afford to let go when somebody says to him, 'Drop that pig and catch another...
...learned Justices chuckled. They questioned Mr. Hardie with interest about the facts of the case. Then Lawyer Henry Hackney argued for Farmer Moor that the Bankhead Act was unconstitutional: it was not a tax to raise revenue but to prevent the raising of cotton; it was an illegal attempt by the Federal Government to regulate farmers who are not engaged in interstate commerce. With equal interest the Justices made inquiries about the terms of the law. Next came the railroad's turn. Its lawyer made no attempt to defend the Bankhead Act, simply contending that unless the Court should...
...exercised except with the utmost care and for the gravest reasons. Very sour indeed were the faces of the Justices at being thus instructed in their duties. As a reason for the Court's not passing on the validity of the law, he advanced the argument that the Moor case was a "non- adversary proceeding; that is, a collusive suit between the plaintiff and the defendants...