THE SUPREME COURT: One Law for All

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At high noon one day this week, an invisible hand parted the red velvet draperies at the front of the U.S. Supreme Court's magnificently plain chamber. Through openings in the draperies and past the gleaming marble Ionic columns stepped nine men robed in black. Eight seated themselves in the black leather chairs at the long mahogany bench; the ninth went with the clerk of the court to a desk beside the bench. After a brief opening ceremony, Clerk Harold B. Willey turned to the man at his side and administered an oath: "I, Earl Warren, do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich..."

Then, in a borrowed robe (his new robe was not ready), Earl Warren stepped up to the bench and seated himself in the high-backed chair in its center. The U.S. had a new Chief Justice, and the U.S. Supreme Court was beginning a new era.

One End to Serve. Chief Justice Warren's first official duty was to "meet" a man he knew well indeed: U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. was formally introduced to the court. The same Herbert Brownell had recommended the appointment of Warren to President Eisenhower and had been the first to tell Warren that he would be appointed. The President had assigned Brownell to the task of searching for a new Chief Justice soon after the death of Fred M. Vinson (TIME, Sept. 21). Brownell immediately began seeking a man with judicial experience. He did not find one who, in his opinion, fitted the job.

Less than two weeks before the Warren appointment was announced, Brownell had a list of six final prospects. Then Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Jackson was dropped from the list because, among other things, he had been a left-of-center Democrat and an ardent supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's Supreme Court packing plan. Associate Justice Harold Burton, the only Republican on the court but not its senior member, was eliminated because jumping him over the others might have started a new round of bickering among the Justices. Federal Circuit Judges Orie L. Phillips of Colorado and John J. Parker of Virginia were considered too old—both will be 68 on the same day, next Nov. 20. New Jersey's Chief Justice Arthur Vanderbilt, 65, was known to be a hard driver, and might have serious trouble with the prima donnas on the high court. That left one name.

When that point was reached, Brownell requisitioned an Air Force plane and flew to California. Dwight Eisenhower and Herbert Brownell already knew that Warren would like a Supreme Court post. But they wanted to find out specifically how the 62-year-old Californian felt about the Chief Justiceship, and whether he could take over right away. After an hour's talk with Warren at McClellan Field outside Sacramento. Brownell had his answers. He flew back to Washington, made his recommendation. President Eisenhower accepted it on the spot.