Sitting No. 142

Red plush cords were stretched across a corridor of the Capitol at noon one day last week. Tourists lined up to watch a heavy door open at one side of the corridor and nine elderly gentlemen in black robes file out and across and into another room. A moment later they emerged in a dim-lit semicircular room, took their places in nine black high-backed chairs on a raised platform. A handsome young man in a cutaway coat cried: "Oyez, oyez, oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting, God save the United States and this Honorable Court." The 142nd term of the Supreme Court had begun.

During its four-month summer holiday the Court's docket had received 324 new cases, making a total of 514 to be heard. Of these only 18 were original actions commenced by states in the highest court. During the more than five years that John Jay was first Chief Justice of the U. S., the Court heard only a score of cases. Now it considers an average of 1,000 cases per year.

The Supreme Court's docket reflects the trend of the times. When John Marshall was chief justice, a preponderance of the cases involved fundamental constitutional issues between states and Federal government. As the nation developed the emphasis shifted more and more to the economic field until today the Court's calendar is topheavy with civil controversies of a corporate character. Ten years of industrial expansion have virtually transformed the Court into a business tribunal where the constitution becomes largely a matter of economics.

Among the 514 cases docketed this term, 140 deal with taxation, ten with criminal law, 16 with Prohibition, 26 with Indians, 25 with personal-injury damages. Famed business cases to be heard: 1) Standard Oil gasoline "cracking" patent pool; 2) Paramount-Famous-Lasky "bloc booking" of cinema films; 3) Chicago telephone rate case.

Some questions the Supreme Court will be asked to settle: Is a "backseat driver" guilty of contributory negligence if he fails to warn of a prospective accident? Is a sunstroke a disease orj an accident? Is a check legal money?

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