Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/727

 The Green Bag PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT $4.00 FIR ANNUM. SINGLE NUMBERS 50 CENTS. Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, S. R. WRIGHTINGTON, 31 State Street, Boston, Mass. Tht Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of interest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities, facetiae, and anecdotes.

THE COURTS IN POLITICS.

Seldom in our history has a Presidential campaign been of as deep interest to the legal profession as the one which is now closing as we go to press. The success of the labor unions in forcing to the front, in the platforms of each of the leading political parties, a declaration of policy regarding the use of injunctions by Courts of Equity, and the attempt of the Democratic party to make political capital out of the fact that the Republican candidate during his judicial career decided cases, which became important precedents, on the rights of employers and employees, has concentrated attention still further upon this issue. To many conserva tives, the very fact of this agitation is ser iously disturbing, but we believe that out of it will come a better understanding, by the members of the ttnions, of the history and purpose of the writ of injunction, and that they will corne to realize that any attempt to curtail its use in the interest of any one class would establish a precedent of far greater danger to them than the maintenance of the existing law. On the question whether notice to the opposing parties should be required before an injunction issues, opinions may well differ, and it is not in any sense improper that it should be made a political issue and the policy of our Courts in this respect determined by legislation. But apart from this minor change, it is to be hoped that the legislators who advocate the claims of Mr. Gompers will not attempt to attain their object by meddling with the established procedure of the Courts, but will proceed frankly to a determination of the right to strike and to boycott, leaving to the Courts the enforce ment of the rights and liabilities thus estab lished.

In still another respect the profession is interested in the Presidential election, for it is openly stated that the probability that the next President will have an oppor tunity to appoint several justices of the Supreme Court entitles us to urge the election of a President whose appointments are likely to be satisfactory to the majority. This is indeed a frank recognition of the position in our system of government which the Supreme Court has come to occupy since the adoption of the 1 4th Amendment, and if we are satis fied to permit our highest judicial tribunal to determine our future economic development, it must inevitably follow that the possibility of changing its personel will become an im portant political issue. For, while even this control over the decisions of the Court is remote and not necessarily effective, it is not at all unlikely that we shall hereafter witness campaigns in which the Presidential candi date will pledge himself to the nomination as judges of public men whose views are too definitely known to the voters to admit of subsequent change. There are few lawyers who will not regret the prospect of seeing their highest judicial body thus dragged into the arena of political discussion, but no remedy now appears unless some division of the labors of the court could be devised whereby one bench would pass upon purely legal, and the other upon constitutional questions. COPYRIGHT AND CONVERSION.

It has long been decided, says the London Law Journal, that the author of an original work, be it of literature or art, or a lecture or a letter, has in it a certain common-law right of property until it is published to the world. And such cases as Caird r. Sime and Prince Albert v. Strange established that the right was