THE JUDICIARY: Call for a Friend

Everyone figured that Harry Truman would take his time selecting a new justice for the Supreme Court. But when newsmen trooped into the President's press conference last week, just five days after the death of Justice Wiley B. Rutledge, the President announced that he had already picked his man. The new justice would be Judge Sherman Minton of the U.S. circuit court of appeals, onetime big voice in New Deal mob scenes, onetime Senator from Indiana, longtime fast friend of Missouri's ex-Senator Harry Truman.

Even in the age of declining Supreme Court prestige, the appointment had its note of irony....

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