Everybody's Justice

In a nation where Government appointments are usually made with an eye to geography, Franklin Roosevelt this week could make a happy choice. To fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Jimmy Byrnes, he named Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr.--who was born in Kentucky, got his A.B. in Wisconsin, taught high school in Indiana and New Mexico, practiced law in Colorado, was dean of law schools in Missouri (Washington University) and Iowa (State University), is now Associate Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

But stocky, rugged Justice Rutledge, 48, had more than geography to recommend him. Least known nationally of all Franklin Roosevelt's Supreme Court appointees, he is famed among legal scholars. He was a stern critic of the old Supreme Court for declaring child labor laws unconstitutional, is a stanch believer in liberal interpretation of the Constitution's "general welfare" clause. Yet his views are far from radical: his appointment was first suggested by Iowa's conservative Senator Guy M. Gillette.

As law-school dean, Justice Rutledge believed in humanizing the rules to give a worthy-looking student a degree, even if his grades were below standard. His view of the law is somewhat akin. He once said, "What good is the law unless it serves human needs?"

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