THE WEEK

The Supreme Court struts on in its drive to subvert American political institutions. Of the three decisions last week, the boldest, the most impudent, and the most anarchical was that calling for the reversal of the contempt citation against John Watkins. The meaning of that decision is stupefying, for it sets up the Supreme Court as arbiter of the intentions of Congress. Below (“Has Congress Abdicated?”) we discuss the apparent abdication of Congress in the face of the irruption of the judiciary.

Imagine the Supreme Court doing what it just now did to Congress if old Pat McCarran were still around as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee! Very possibly he would have gone across the street and tongue-lashed eight out of nine of the distinguished justices; certainly he would have mobilized Congress, overnight, to fight back and, as was Senator McCarran’s way, to win the battle against the forces of judicial subversion. One wonders at the lassitude, these days, of Senator Eastland. What is he saving himself for? The repeal of Jim Crow in Ruleville, Mississippi?

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The Supreme Court struts on in its drive to subvert American political institutions. Of the three decisions last week, the boldest, the most impudent, and the most anarchical was that calling for the reversal of the contempt citation against John Watkins. The meaning of that decision is stupefying, for it sets up the Supreme Court as arbiter of the intentions of Congress. Below (“Has Congress Abdicated?”) we discuss the apparent abdication of Congress in the face of the irruption of the judiciary.

Imagine the Supreme Court doing what it just now did to Congress if old Pat McCarran were still around as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee! Very possibly he would have gone across the street and tongue-lashed eight out of nine of the distinguished justices; certainly he would have mobilized Congress, overnight, to fight back and, as was Senator McCarran’s way, to win the battle against the forces of judicial subversion. One wonders at the lassitude, these days, of Senator Eastland. What is he saving himself for? The repeal of Jim Crow in Ruleville, Mississippi?