Nominee No. 78

"I'm not a spectacular person, boys, and make mighty poor copy. Besides I'm a man of only ordinary ability. Naturally I'm quite happy at being nominated, but very humble about it."

Judge John Johnston Parker of the Fourth U. S. Circuit Court was talking to newsmen at his home in Charlotte, N. C. They clustered about him because President Hoover had just appointed him an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, vice Edward Terry Sanford, deceased. Though 77 men have been elevated to the Supreme Court in its 141 years, only two came from North Carolina.

Supreme Court Nominee No. 78 was born at Monroe, N. C. 44 years ago. His great-great-granduncle was James Iredell. North Carolina's first U. S. Supreme Court justice. Known still as "the best scholar at Chapel Hill since the Civil War," he led his class (1907) through the University of North Carolina, a year later became a practicing lawyer. His great bass voice reverberated triumphantly through many a Carolina court room. Jury after jury felt the force of his geniality no less than his legal logic. A Republican, he ran vainly but well for attorney general in 1916, for governor in 1920. In 1923 he was named an assistant to the U. S. Attorney General to prosecute war frauds, an assignment which caught the approving eye of President Coolidge who appointed him to the circuit court in 1925. Married, father of three, Judge Parker bought a set of golf clubs five years ago, has not yet got around to playing.

Never a corporation lawyer Judge Parker is rated, on his decisions, a "moderate conservative" who on occasions may join with the liberal Holmes-Brandeis-Stone minority on the Supreme Court of the U. S. In Washington senators who bitterly flayed the appointment of Chief Justice Hughes declared that they had heard only favorable reports on Supreme Court Nominee No. 78.

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