The Stone Court began in 1941, when Associate Justice Stone was confirmed to replace Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice. Stone had served as an Associate Justice since 1925, when PresidentCalvin Coolidge nominated him to the bench. During the Court's 1932–37 terms, Stone and justicesBrandeis andCardozo formed a liberal bloc called theThree Musketeers that generally voted to uphold the constitutionality of theNew Deal.
Shortly beforeV-E Day, Truman named Justice Jackson to serve as U.S. Chief of Counsel for the prosecution of high-rankingGerman officials accused ofwar crimes at the 1945–46Nuremberg trials. As a result, Jackson was absent for one entire Court term, and his fellow justices had to do an extra amount of work during the term.[5] Stone died on April 22, 1946, after suffering acerebral hemorrhage.[3] Truman subsequently appointedFred Vinson as Stone's successor.
Glasser v. United States (1942): In a 6–2 decision written by Justice Murphy, the court reversed a criminal conviction on the basis that the defense attorney had aconflict of interest. The court also ruled that the exclusion of women from thejury pool violated theSixth Amendment's Impartial Jury Clause. The court held that jury pools should be a "cross-section of the community."
Betts v. Brady (1942): In a 6–3 decision written by Justice Roberts, the court ruled thatindigent defendants did not have the right to an appointed counsel in state courts under theDue Process Clause. The case was overruled byGideon v. Wainwright (1963).
Wickard v. Filburn (1942): In a unanimous decision written by Justice Jackson, the court upheld wheat production quotas established by theAgricultural Adjustment Act of 1938. The appellant argued that the production quotas overstepped the powers granted to Congress by theInterstate Commerce Clause, as the appellant used the wheat to feed his own animals. However, the court ruled that the farmer would have bought more wheat had he not grown his own, thus affecting interstate commerce.
Smith v. Allwright (1944): In an 8–1 decision written by Justice Reed, the court struck down a Texas law that allowedwhite primaries. The case overruledGrovey v. Townsend (1935), which had held white primaries to be constitutional on the basis that political parties are private organizations.
International Shoe Co. v. Washington (1945): In an 8–0 decision written by Justice Stone, the court held that parties could be subject to thepersonal jurisdiction of a state court if said parties have "minimum contacts" with the state. The court rejected the appellant's argument that the company should not fall under the jurisdiction of the state of Washington since it did not maintain a permanent "situs" of business in the state, despite doing business in the state.
Edwards v. California (1941): Justice Byrnes authored his best known opinion to strike down a California statute criminalizing bringing indigent residents of other states to California because imposing an "intended and immediate" burden on interstate commerce was "the plain and sole function of the statute". The decision was unanimous but three Justices wanted to apply the privileges and immunities clause of the 14th amendment to strike down the law as a violation of the right of free movement.[7]
Stone had largely sided with the government's position when theHughes Court struck down several pieces ofNew Deal legislation, and the Stone Court (with the addition of several Roosevelt appointees) consistently upheld Congressional power pursuant to the Commerce Clause.[2] The Stone Court also upheld broad war-time powers for the government.[2] The Stone Court was less deferential in the area of civil liberties, striking down laws in cases such asBarnett, althoughKorematsu was a major exception to this trend.[2] Despite Roosevelt's appointment of seven of the nine justices (and the elevation of Stone), the justices held independent views and often found each other at odds in regard to civil liberties.[2][8] Stone himself received criticism for presiding over a divided and quarrelsome court.[9] Justice Frankfurter often took a position supportingjudicial restraint in which the court took deference to the decisions of elected officials, while Justices Black and Douglas were more willing to strike down laws and precedents for what they saw as violations of constitutional rights.[8] Murphy and Rutledge joined Black and Douglas as part of the more liberal bloc, while Jackson, Reed, and Stone tended to side with Frankfurter.[10][11] Roberts often sided with the Frankfurter bloc, but was more conservative than the other eight justices.[11] Though outnumbered, the more liberal bloc led by Black and Douglas often took the majority in cases by peeling off the votes from the moderate bloc, and the two groupings of justices did not form as tight of blocs as they did in later decades.[12] The short length of the Stone Court gave it little chance to establish a definitive legacy.[13] However, the Stone Court continued the Constitutional Revolution of 1937 that had started during the Hughes Court and foreshadowed the liberal rulings of theWarren Court.[14]
Renstrom, Peter G. (2001).The Stone Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO.ISBN9781576071533.
Urofsky, Melvin I. (1997).Division and Discord: The Supreme Court Under Stone and Vinson, 1941-1953. University of South Carolina Press.ISBN9781570031205.
Ferren, John M. (2006).Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court: The Story of Justice Wiley Rutledge. University of North Carolina Press.ISBN9780807876619.
Howard, J. Woodford (2015) [1968].Mr. Justice Murphy: A Political Biography. Princeton University Press.ISBN9781400875641.
Abraham, Henry Julian (2008).Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN9780742558953.
Hall, Kermit L.; Ely, James W. Jr.; Grossman, Joel B., eds. (2005).The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195176612.
Hall, Kermit L.; Ely, James W. Jr., eds. (2009).The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0195379396.
Hall, Timothy L. (2001).Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. Infobase Publishing.ISBN9781438108179.
Hoffer, Peter Charles; Hoffer, WilliamJames Hull; Hull, N. E. H. (2018).The Supreme Court: An Essential History (2nd ed.). University Press of Kansas.ISBN978-0-7006-2681-6.
Howard, John R. (1999).The Shifting Wind: The Supreme Court and Civil Rights from Reconstruction to Brown. SUNY Press.ISBN9780791440896.
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