Court v. Court

Last fortnight the Supreme Court of the U. S. found the Secretary of Agriculture guilty of error. The error: issuing a final rate order before the Kansas City sheep broker affected by it had a chance to question the Government conclusions.

The Court plainly indicated that the National Labor Relations Board had made the same mistake in cases against Ford Motor Co., Republic Steel and Inland Steel, several others. Anxious to stem the tide of criticism and court maneuver thus engendered, an NLRB spokesman last week disclosed that in these cases the board had relied upon a Supreme Court finding two years ago. This was at the time that the case passed upon last fortnight was heard and remanded for retrial to a lower court. Ruled the Supreme Court, on May 25, 1936: "While it would have been good practice to have the [Department of Agriculture] examiner prepare a report and submit it to the Secretary and the parties, and to permit exceptions and arguments addressed to the points thus presented ... we cannot say that that particular type of procedure was essential to the validity of the hearing." Only practical purpose served by NLRB apologists in resurrecting the previous and now superseded decision was to demonstrate: 1) the NLRB may well have acted in good faith in foreshortening its Ford, Republic, Inland procedure; 2) the sheep broker's attorney, Frederick Hill Wood of New York, had notably increased his repute as a New Deal nemesis by persuading the newly liberal Supreme Court to reverse itself.

Soon as the potential effects of the reversal became apparent, NLRB Counsel Charles Fahy asked the Circuit Courts of Appeals at Covington, Ky., Philadelphia and Chicago to permit withdrawal and correction of board records filed respectively against Ford Motor Co., Republic Steel Corp., Inland Steel Co. The Covington court first granted, this week denied NLRB the desperately needed permission; the Philadelphia court postponed final decision. Circuit judges at Chicago were to hear the Board's Inland petition this week. Certain it was that unless the Supreme Court of the U. S. reverses the Sixth Circuit Court at Covington, Ford Counsel Frederick Hill Wood will be one up on NLRB Counsel Fahy.

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