“Vinson Court”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Vinson Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1946 to 1953, when Fred Vinson served as Chief Justice of the United States. Vinson succeeded Harlan F. Stone as Chief Justice after the latter's death, and Vinson served as Chief Justice until his death, at which point Earl Warren was nominated and confirmed to succeed Vinson.

The court presided over the country during the start of the Cold War and the Korean War. The court's decisions reflected the continuing ideological battle between the judicial restraint of Justice Felix Frankfurter and the civil rights activism of Justices William O. Douglas and Hugo Black. Frankfurter's more conservative views prevailed during the Vinson Court, but many of the dissents written during the Vinson Court would lay the groundwork for the major rulings during the succeeding Warren Court.

Membership

The Vinson Court began in 1946, when Secretary of the Treasury Fred Vinson was confirmed to replace Harlan Stone as Chief Justice. Vinson was appointed by President Harry Truman, who had also appointed Harold Hitz Burton to the court in 1945.

At the beginning of the Vinson Court, the court consisted of Vinson, Burton, and seven Roosevelt appointees: Hugo Black, Stanley F. Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William Douglas, Frank Murphy, Robert H. Jackson, and Wiley Blount Rutledge. Rutledge and Murphy both died in 1949, prompting Truman to appoint Tom C. Clark and Sherman Minton to the bench.

Vinson died in September, 1953. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Vinson's successor by means of a recess appointment.

Timeline

Bar key: {{smaller|{{color box|#ddd06a|{{ns|4}}}} F. Roosevelt appointee{{•}} {{color box|#50c878|{{ns|4}}}} Truman appointee}}}}

Rulings of the Court

The short tenure of the Vinson Court gave it relatively little time to render major rulings, but decisions of the court include:^[1]

Judicial philosophy

Vinson took office at a time when the court was divided into two camps: a progressive camp led by Justices Black and Douglas, and a more conservative camp led by Justices Jackson and Frankfurter.^[4] President Roosevelt had appointed justices who would uphold the more expansive economic regulations of the New Deal (thus ending the Lochner era), but the same Roosevelt appointees often split on civil liberties cases.^[4] The Truman appointees, who had executive or legislative branch experience and were reluctant to strike down government powers at the dawn of the Cold War, largely took the side of Jackson and Frankfurter.^[4] Justices Rutledge and Murphy were part of the more liberal bloc prior to their death, while Burton and Reed tended to side with Frankfurter and Jackson.^[5] The court thus took a more conservative position than the Stone Court (particularly after 1949),^[5] which often struck down laws for conflicting with civil liberties.^[4] However, the views of Black and Douglas generally won out in the succeeding Warren Court, and their dissents in Vinson Court cases such as Dennis helped lay the foundation for many of the Warren Court holdings.^[6] On his death, The New York Times credited Vinson for soothing the tensions between the two blocs of justices,^[7] but legal historian Michal Belknap argues that Vinson was largely unsuccessful in this endeavor.^[8]

References

1. ^{{cite book|last1=Belknap|first1=Michal|title=The Vinson Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy|date=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|pages=89–91|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oeFRJj8dVAUC&dq=vinson+court&source=gbs_navlinks_s|accessdate=3 March 2016}}
2. ^{{cite book|last1=Wittern-Keller|first1=Laura|title=Freedom of the Screen: Legal Challenges to State Film Censorship, 1915-1981|date=11 January 2008|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|page=276|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvzHIRpfY1UC&dq=burstyn+freedman&source=gbs_navlinks_s|accessdate=3 March 2016}}
3. ^{{cite news|last1=Liptak|first1=Adam|title=Focus of Hearings Quickly Turns to Limits of Presidential Power|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/politics/politicsspecial1/10legal.html|accessdate=3 March 2016|publisher=New York Times|date=10 January 2006}}
4. ^¹Belknap, 3-4
5. ^¹{{cite journal|last1=Galloway, Jr.|first1=Russell|title=The Vinson Court: Polarization (1946-1949) and Conservative Dominance (1949-1953)|journal=Santa Clara Law Review|date=1 January 1982|volume=22|issue=2|pages=377, 388|url=http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2036&context=lawreview|accessdate=4 March 2016}}
6. ^Belknap, 90, 165-167
7. ^{{cite news|title=Vinson Excelled In Federal Posts|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0122.html|accessdate=3 March 2016|publisher=New York Times|date=9 September 1953}}
8. ^¹²Belknap, 162-163

Membership

Timeline

Rulings of the Court

Judicial philosophy

References

Further reading

Works centering on the Vinson Court

Works centering on Vinson Court justices

Other relevant works