The court presided over the country during the start of the
Cold War and the
Korean War. The court's decisions reflected the continuing ideological battle between the
judicial restraint of Justice
Felix Frankfurter and the civil rights activism of Justices
William O. Douglas and
Hugo Black. Frankfurter's more conservative views prevailed during Vinson's tenure, but many of the dissents written during the Vinson Court would lay the groundwork for the major rulings during the succeeding
Warren Court.
The Vinson Court began in 1946, when U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Fred M. Vinson was confirmed to replace
Harlan F. Stone as Chief Justice. Vinson was appointed by President
Harry Truman, who had also appointed
Harold Hitz Burton to the court in 1945.
The short tenure of the Vinson Court gave it relatively little time to render major rulings, but decisions of the court include:[1]
Everson v. Board of Education (1947): In a 5–4 decision written by Justice Black, the court upheld a New Jersey law that provided for transportation reimbursement for children attending private schools. The court unanimously
incorporated the
Establishment Clause via
the Fourteenth Amendment, but the majority held that the New Jersey law did not violate the Establishment Clause because the reimbursements were provided to all parents regardless of religion.
McCollum v. Board of Education (1948): In an 8–1 decision written by Justice Black, the court struck down an Illinois program that used public school classrooms to teach voluntary religion classes during school hours. The court held that the classes violated the Establishment Clause.
Dennis v. United States (1951): In a plurality decision written by Justice Vinson, the court upheld the
conviction of
Eugene Dennis, a Communist Party leader, under the
Smith Act. The court held that the
First Amendment does not protect activities that seek to overthrow the United States government. Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) largely overruled this holding.
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952): In a 6–3 decision written by Justice Black and in which five justices wrote concurrences, the court ordered President Truman to return control of several steel mills to their owners. Truman had taken control of the mills after the
1952 steel strike, which presented a threat to the American effort in the
Korean War. The large number of concurrences made the precedential value of the ruling unclear, but the ruling nonetheless checked the
executive power of the president. Justice Jackson's
concurring opinion laid out three categories of executive power and made a lasting impact in the understanding of
separation of powers.[3]
Vinson took office at a time when the court was divided into two camps: a progressive camp led by Justices Black and Douglas, and a more conservative camp led by Justices Jackson and Frankfurter.[4] President Roosevelt had appointed justices who would uphold the more expansive economic regulations of the
New Deal (thus ending the
Lochner era), but the same Roosevelt appointees often split on civil liberties cases.[5] The Truman appointees, who had executive or legislative branch experience and were reluctant to strike down government powers at the dawn of the
Cold War, largely took the side of Jackson and Frankfurter.[4] Justices Rutledge and Murphy were part of the more liberal bloc prior to their death, while Burton and Reed tended to side with Frankfurter and Jackson.[6] The court thus took a more conservative position than the Stone Court (particularly after 1949),[6] which often struck down laws for conflicting with civil liberties.[5] However, the views of Black and Douglas generally won out in the succeeding
Warren Court, and their dissents in Vinson Court cases such as Dennis helped lay the foundation for many of the Warren Court holdings.[7] On his death, The New York Times credited Vinson for soothing the tensions between the two blocs of justices,[8] but legal historian Michal Belknap argues that Vinson was largely unsuccessful in this endeavor.[4]
Gallery
Vinson Court (June 24, 1946 - July 19, 1949)
Vinson Court (October 12, 1949 - September 8, 1953)
Belknap, Michael R. (2004). The Vinson Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO.
ISBN9781576072011.
Palmer, Jan S. (1990). The Vinson Court Era: The Supreme Court's Conference Votes: Data and Analysis. AMS Press.
ISBN9780404616090.
Urofsky, Melvin I. (1997). Division and Discord: The Supreme Court Under Stone and Vinson, 1941-1953. University of South Carolina Press.
ISBN9781570031205.
Works centering on Vinson Court justices
Fassett, John D. (1994). New Deal Justice: the Life of Stanley Reed of Kentucky. Vantage Press.
ISBN9780533107070.
Ferren, John M. (2006). Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court: The Story of Justice Wiley Rutledge. University of North Carolina Press.
ISBN9780807876619.
Gronlund, Mimi Clark (2010). Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark: A Life of Service. University of Texas Press.
ISBN978-0292719910.
Gugin, Linda C. (1997). Sherman Minton: New Deal Senator, Cold War Justice. Indiana Historical Society.
ISBN9780871951168.
Howard, J. Woodford (2015) [1968]. Mr. Justice Murphy: A Political Biography. Princeton University Press.
ISBN9781400875641.
St. Clair, James E.; Gugin, Linda C. (2015). Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography. University Press of Kentucky.
ISBN9780813158860.
Abraham, Henry Julian (2008). Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II. Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN9780742558953.
Hall, Kermit L.; Ely, James W. Jr.; Grossman, Joel B., eds. (2005). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780195176612.
Hall, Kermit L.; Ely, James W. Jr., eds. (2009). The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0195379396.
Hall, Timothy L. (2001). Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. Infobase Publishing.
ISBN9781438108179.
Hoffer, Peter Charles; Hoffer, WilliamJames Hull; Hull, N. E. H. (2018). The Supreme Court: An Essential History (2nd ed.). University Press of Kansas.
ISBN978-0-7006-2681-6.
Howard, John R. (1999). The Shifting Wind: The Supreme Court and Civil Rights from Reconstruction to Brown. SUNY Press.
ISBN9780791440896.