THE SUPREME COURT: At the Crossroads

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The traditional cry broke the cathedral silence of the marble courtroom: "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to draw nigh and give their attention, for the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court." The nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, convened in extraordinary session, took their places at the bench. On the right, facing the justices, sat counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, petitioners. On the left sat counsel for the Little Rock school board, respondents. Near by, in traditional cutaway and striped trousers sat Solicitor General J. Lee Rankin, representing the U.S. as amicus curiae (friend of the court). The issue before the court, like all great issues, was basically simple: whether the rule of law or of violence should prevail at Little Rock's Central High School. The legal situation was more complicated. Last June Federal Judge Harry J. Lemley of Arkansas' Eastern District ordered a 2½-year breathing-spell delay in integration at Little Rock. Last month in St. Louis, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court reversed Judge Lemley's ruling, but later granted a 3O-day stay of integration, to let the school board present its case to the Supreme Court. Technically, before the Supreme Court last week was an N.A.A.C.P. motion to vacate the 30-day stay. But the U.S., represented by its Solicitor General, had suggested what the N.A.A.C.P. had not: that the Supreme Court go beyond the question of the 30-day stay, rule on Judge Lemley's June decision, and thereby go straight to the heart of the nation's most weighty domestic problem.

Recognized Rights. Five minutes after noon, Chief Justice Earl Warren's nod brought the N.A.A.C.P.'s special counsel, Thurgood Marshall, slowly to his feet; to him, more than to anyone else in the room, this session, however important, was just another battle in a long, long war. Almost serenely, Marshall reviewed the legal history of the case. The N.A.A.C.P., he said, sought only one thing: protection of the right of seven Negro children to stay on at Little Rock's Central High School. "The rights we are seeking protection for are not rights that are in the abstract," said Counselor Marshall. "The rights we seek are rights that have been recognized by the federal courts." Taking his cue from the Justice Department brief already filed, Marshall also urged the Supreme Court to go beyond the motion before it, to rule on Judge Lemley's original decision. "The way the case stands," said Marshall, "there must be a definitive decision, so that in Arkansas there will be no doubt that the orders of the court cannot be interfered with ... by obstructionists and mob action . . ." Finally, just before he sat down, Thurgood Marshall's voice broke. "When a bank is robbed you don't close the bank," he cried. "You put the bank robbers in jail."