Word: opinion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
From Nelson to Uphaus. In 1956, a 6-to-3 decision of the Supreme Court reversed the Pennsylvania conviction of Communist Leader Steve Nelson on state sedition charges. Said the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Warren: Federal regulations against subversive activity were so "pervasive" that "Congress left no room for the states to supplement [them]." By its language, the opinion seemed to be kicking the states completely out of the antisedition field...
Last week, in an opinion written by Justice Tom Clark (Justices Felix Frankfurter, John Marshall Harlan, Charles Evans Whittaker and Potter Stewart concurring), the Supreme Court turned Uphaus down. The critical difference between Uphaus and Nelson, said the court, was that evidence in Steve Nelson's case had indicated activities not against a state but against the Federal Government. Wrote Justice Clark: "All the [Nelson] opinion proscribed was a race between federal and state prosecutors to the courthouse door. The opinion made clear that a State could proceed with prosecutions for sedition against the State itself." In a dissent...
...Watkins to Barenblatt. In 1957, the Supreme Court voted 6 to 1 against the contempt-of-Congress conviction of John Watkins, onetime official of the Red-led Farm Equipment Workers International Union, who had refused to answer House un-American Activities Committee questions about Communism. The court's opinion, written by Chief Justice Warren, included a scathing denunciation of congressional investigative activities; critics of the opinion argued that in trying to put a rein on congressional investigators, the court instead had come up with a noose...
Dusting off a 66-year-old Georgia Supreme Court opinion ("No newspaper has a right while a case is under investigation to comment upon its merits," etc.), Judge Pye then held both Atlanta papers in contempt for "interfering with the business of the court." Said the judge coldly: "The amount of the fine should take into consideration that the offenses were calculated, designed, deliberate and repeated. This corporation [i.e., the papers] takes the position that all that which it here did was its absolute right and privilege to do. It has no such right, and it must be taught...
Like late election returns, posthumous books rarely turn the tide of opinion for or against a writer, and So Be It is no exception. It was Gide's luck and genius to do a few things extremely well. In The Counterfeiters, he wrote a novel that must rank in any top-ten list of the 20th century. The four volumes of his Journals are a matchless record of self-search and self-revelation. Renowned as a man of letters, Gide was perhaps more influential and controversial as a kind of culture hero of his time. His cult of untrammeled...