Published by
THE RAND SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
New York City
Copyright
RAND SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
7 East 15th Street
New York
1919
By
The Supreme Court of the United States on March 10, 1919, handed down adecision on the Debs case. That decision is far-reaching in itsimmediate significance and still more far-reaching in its ultimateimplications.
What is the Supreme Court of the United States?
Article III, Section I of the Constitution provides as follows:
"The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one SupremeCourt.... The judges shall hold their offices during good behavior."
The judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate(Article XII, Section II). That is all the constitution provides withregard to the Supreme Court.
At the present time, there are nine judges on the Supreme bench. Itmight interest you to know some facts about the nine. All of the judgesare men. The chief justice is Edward D. White, who was born in 1845 andadmitted to the bar in 1868. He is seventy-three years of age. Hisbirth-place was Louisiana. He served in the Confederate Army, in the[4]State Senate, in the State Supreme Court and in the United StatesSenate. He has been a member of the Supreme Court for twenty-five years.Joseph McKenna is the second member in point of seniority. He was bornin 1843. His birth-place is Philadelphia. He was a county DistrictAttorney, a member of the State Legislature, a member of the nationalHouse of Representatives, attorney-general of the United States and aUnited States Circuit Judge. He has been a member of the Supreme Courtfor twenty-two years. Oliver W. Holmes, the Justice who read the Debsdecision, was born in Boston in 1841. He is seventy-seven years of age.He was admitted to the bar in 1866. Justice Holmes served in the UnionArmy; he was a member of the Harvard Law School Faculty. He has been amember of the Supreme Court for seventeen years. Those are the threeoldest men on the Supreme bench. They are the three men who have been onthe bench longest, but their political background is typical of thepolitical background of the other members of the Supreme Court, with thesingle exception of Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who as far as I know,held no public office at all before he was appointed a justice of theSupreme Court three years ago.
The nine members of the Supreme Court are all old men. Four of them wereborn before 1850; eight of them were born before 1860; one of them wasborn since 1861, that is, James C. McReynolds, who was born in 1862.There is not a single member of the Supreme Court bench born since theCivil War. The oldest man on the bench is Justice Holmes, seventy-seven;the youngest man on the bench is Justice McReynolds, fifty-seven; theaverage age of the justices of the Supreme Court is sixty-six years.These men all began practising law while we were children, or before wewere born. Three of them began the practice of law before 1870; six of[5]them began to practice law before 1880; nine of them before 1884. Thelast member of the Supreme bench to be admitted to the practice of law,Justice McReynolds, was admitted in 1884.
The Supreme Court Justices were educated in the generation preceding themodern epoch of financial imperialism. They were mature when theindustrial orde