NCJ Number
113721
Journal
Emory Law Journal Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1988) Pages: 249-294
Date Published
1988
Length
46 pages
Annotation
This article examines major decisions of the Vinson Supreme Court between 1946 and 1953.
Abstract
In the area of religion, the Court held that religious freedom was a part of 'liberty' and protected by due process so that public funds could be used for transporting public and parochial school students. It also ruled on the appropriateness of releasing public school students from secular classes for religious instruction. The Court addressed a variety of issues related to freedom of speech, including the use of loudspeakers in public places, the playing of music on streetcars and buses, incitement to riot, libelous statements against religious or racial groups, subversive speech (particularly Communist-oriented), and Taft-Harley Act provisions. The Court ruled on a number of equality and due process issues: restrictive covenants forbidding occupancy of land by nonwhites, separate but equal schooling for blacks, limitations on the number of aliens a willing employer could hire, nepotism in the hiring of river pilots, the exclusion of women from bartending, and comments by State prosecutors and judges on a criminal defendant's unwillingness to take the stand. Others dealt with the exclusionary rule, unreasonable searches, and the respective powers of the President and Congress. While the Vinson Court slowed down the expansion of civil liberties, great strides still were made in the areas of discrimination and civil rights. 266 footnotes.