F 4e S tr~igan DatI
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IURSDA, FEBRUARY 19, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS
What is to be done?
ESTERDAY WAS a frightening day.
What everyone knew would happen in
e Chicago conspiracy trial did happen,
th only slight podifications. And what
were all told would happen in Ann
bor happened too. t
The whole trial in Chicago was a gross
ilation of all human and civil rights.
ganizing a peaceful demonstration
uals inciting a riot. Trying to defend
urself before an autocratic judge equals
ntempt of court. Trying to keep police
)m manhandling your friends and fam-
is good for six months in jail, without
en the farce of a jury trial.
Repression doesn't always take place
the streets, it can be administered just
cruelly in the 'halls of justice.' Bring
ne key radicals into court and charge
em with violating an unconstitutional
v. Keep them there for over four
inths. Keep stepping on their lawyers
A locking out their witnesses, and lying
out them until they explode. Then send
em to jail because they don't have any,
spect for the judicial system.
UT THE HORROR of yesterday, the
first warm day of spring, was not
nfined to Chicago. Repression by an
fair and obdurate establishment was
e order of the day in Ann Arbor too.
lice in the Engineering Arch were beat-
students involved in and watching
e protest.
ORE FRIGHTENING still is the latent
police state which this town now ap-
ars to live. Following this action on
st University, hundredi of police -
ate Police, County police and the entire
n Arbor police force were massed for
It's scary. All those dismal underground
Russian novels coming home. The Mc-
Carthyism the old liberals are so scared
about is nothing. The Palmer Raids are
back among us, and the courts haven't
changed much since the appelate judges
upheld the conviction of two Italian
anarchists because, though they knew the
presiding judge had biased the case
against them, they had to uphold him
tp preserve the judicial system.
And they preserved it. This country is
still washed in the blood of Sacco and
Vanzetti; we have seen Julius Hoffman
before. The judge's robe hides the police-
man's club, and the man who gets his
head cut open later goes to j ail ,because
it is obvious he was the one who started
it all.
The cops were out last night in Ann
Arbor because the natives were restless.
They've been doing it in the ghettos for
decades, and now they've come to the
academic enclaves because the students
have stopped being good niggers.
JAMES WECHSLER.r..
Carswell as justice:
A perverse victory
AS CLEMENT HAYNSWORTH painfully learned, a Supreme Court
nominee should take nothing for granted until the final returns from
the Senate are in. But by last night the indications were that only
a new bombshell of shattering proportions could prevent the confirma-
tion of G. Harrold Carswell.
Most of the Senators who led the fight against Haynsworth are
clearly suffering from combat fatigue and unwilling to resist Judiciary
chairman Eastland's pressures for early termination of the proceedings.
(Unhappily, the hearings provided no occasion to ask Mr. Eastland
whether he joins Carswell in the latter's repudiation of his 1948 racist
manifesto.)
For President Nixon, Senate approval of Carswell will be generally
viewed as a perverse triumph. Few men can dispute that, in a contest
of mediocrity, Carswell has been shown to be Haynsworth's legal in-
ferior.
But can Carswell's elevation really be judged a victory for Mr.
Nixon or any American except those diehard segregationists who cling
to the hope that the new Justice has never wholly shed the passionate
bigotry of his 1948 utterance?
TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY, and to millions of white Americans
who have dedicated themselves to the cause of equal rights, the sym-
bolism of the Carswell designation is a cold affront. It will widen the
estrangement between Mr. Nixon and that part of America to which he
initially extended the rhetoric of conciliation but which he is plainly
prepared to sacrific in his quest for the allegiance of George C. Wal-
lace's followers (in the North as well as the South).
Nothing in the record offers any persuasive sign that Carswell
has actively and affirmatively contested the spirit of his 1948 recital.
Leroy Clark, an NYU professor and formerly a black Legal Defense
Fund lawyer in Florida, is quoted by Time magazine as saying that
"he was probably the most hostile judge I've ever appeared before;
he would rarely let me finish a sentence." During his tenure as a dis-
trict judge, 60 per cent of his 23 civil rights decisions were upset by the
Fifth Circuit Court. John Lowenthal, now a Rutgers law professor who
has also worked on the Southern front, has further documented the
portrait of Carswell's courtroom identification wtih the segregationist
status quo.
TO ANY SERIOUS YOUNG LAWYER, membership on the Su-t
preme Court must be regarded as the loftiest recognition that can be
achieved. Now it seems overwhelmingly clear that no trace of judicialI
distinction or scholarship were to be found in Carswell's history; suchs
considerations were plainly irrelevant to Attorney General Mitchell's
search for the right political man.k
Fred Graham, who specializes in legal coverage for The New YorkF
Times, performed some elementary research a few days ago. Describing
Carswell as a judge who "presents almost no exceptional qualities at
all," he added: "When the Justice Dept. asked for a list of his legala
articles and writings, he replied that he had none. He furnished at
list of rsome 25 opinions that read, for the most part like plumbersc
manuals."t
Was this the worthiest prospect available-even granting thek
premise that the seat was being reserved for a Southern conservative?%
The conclusion is an insult to the very breed of man Carswell is sup-e
posed to represent-and which has produced judges widely esteemedx
for their learning in the law.
Such an appointment invites contempt for the nation's highestk
court. Disrespect for law-and those who practice it-is further height-
ened when the American Bar Association places its seal of approvalr
on so shabby a political product.I
IN APPARENT RECOGNITION of its declining standards, the ABA
has now abandoned the practice of identifying some men as "specially
qualified," perhaps in anticipation of the problems that will be createdr
by Mr. Nixon's next appointment. It will now confine itself to sayingt
"aye" or "nay"-and, in the light of its ung record of uncritical endorse-r
ment, the "ayes" will surely have it unless the nominee proves to be aE
fugitive from a county jail.e
Other President have made dubious appointments (some of whoml
confounded their detractors); great jurists, such as the late Learnedc
Hand, have been denied appointment by progressive Presidents, in-
cluding Franklin D. Roosevelt. But an Administration that moves frome
Haynsworth to Carswell seems determined to establish an unprecedent-c
er record for dramatizing the survival of the unfittest.. At this momentc
one can only pray for the longevity of the present members of the courtr
-right, left and center.t
a New York Post
of
The value of minority admissions
DARKNESS
Dellinger
violence, and
a Quaker.
FALLS upon the land. Dave
goes to jail as a man of
Richard Nixon calls himself
This is what's happening, and nothing
seems to stop it. No tactics seem success-
ful against the onslaught of the police
state. There is no one answer, but we
must do something. We 'must each settle
in our own, conscience what is to be done.
-THE EDITORIAL DIRECTORS
STEVE ANZALONE
CHRIS STEELE
JENNY STILLER
By DARYL GORRMAN
Daily Guest Writer
THE UNIVERSITY has a tradi-
tion of academic excellence which
is international in its scope. "The
Harvard of the West," and "Re-
search Center of the Midwest" are
among the prases which have
been applied to the University.
But the University is in danger
of losing its reputation. Why?
Many people believe that the
admission of large numbers of
minority students will ruin the
University's standing in the aca-
demic community. This view, be-
trays a feat or unwillingness, or
both, to recognize the reality that
we are living in a world that never
existed before - a world with new.
problems and new resources re-
quiring solutions that have never
been articulated before.
However, by refusing to admit
many more minority students, the
University would lose a great op-
portunity to enhance its image in
the academic community.
FIRST, MINORITY students do
not usually possess a predisposi-
tion toward acceptance of the
modes and forms of "mainstream"
America. This means that they
are usually better able to critical-
ly analyze the modes and forms
of the "mainstream." If change is
inevitable, we should be concern-
ed that when change does come, it
comes rapidly enough to meet so-
ciety's needs for change. How
often in America's history have
people and the movements which
they supported been repressed on-
ly to finally gain acceptance by
people who later agreed that the
harms which they foresaw did
not materialize?
Secondly, minority s t u d e n t s
simply have not accepted many of
the current modes and forms of
society. Many of the forms under
which we operate will need to be
replaced. For example, society; in
general, will not benefit from the
continued use of those forms
which discriminate among people
simply on the basis of race. Racial
animosities, mistrusts, and ten-
sions cannot be perpetuated in-
defnitely, Where these form exist,
it would appear that they are most
likely to be effectively changed
by the people whom they most
directly affect.
IT IS NOT healthy for this so-
ciety to have large numbers of
people who are alienated by what
they experience in the educational
system. Yet, this i what often
happens to people who are con-
cerned about "relevancy" in' edu-
cation. Reality is not an abstrac-
tion; when it is necessary to know
how to keep a person from going
to jail for a crime that he did
not commit, there should be
enough people who are educated
both to know how torand to want
to deal with this problem.
Most significantly, new ways of
looking at the role of bhe univer-
sity should be developed. Accord-
ing to Timothy Healy (Dec. 20,
1969; Saturday Review, "The mis-
sion of the college is not simply
to 'maximize its output of dis-
tinguished alumni by maximizing
its input of talented students.
Such a static view puts the college
in the role of a kind of funnel,
where what comes out is purely
a matter of what goes in. Colleges
and other educational institutions
exist in order to change the stu-
dent, to contribute to his personal
development, to make a differ-
ence."
The distinguished faculty of the
University should certainly con-
sider itself capable of really edu-
eating both students who need a
good education and those who
would have succeeded anyway.
Those students who need and can
benefit most from a college edu-
cation should be educated at the
University with its high lacademic
standards.
THE UNIVERSITY must not
merely study, research and analyze
the problems of blackE people. It
must also educate sufficient num-
bers of black people to deal with
these problems. Further, if black
students are so "culturally de-
prived," then they really need the
best education available, don't
they?
Finally, programs such as that
proposed by the Black Action
Movement sound expensive. Ac-
tually, for those who like to look
at things in a long-range sense,
they represent too small an invest-
ment in the future of this state
and this nation. The good of so-
ciety must not always be bound
by "political realities." Thus, af-
fiimative action now might add
to the concept of a' research-
oriented university the necessary
correlative concept of a solution-
oriented university.
.'
4
41
A need for a front
against repression
THE STUDENT Mobilization Committee
to end the war in Vietnam, at its na-
tional conference in Cleveland last week-
end, proved itself incapable of under-
standing and confronting the political
realities in contemporary America.
What those Americans discontented
'with the policies of this country's govern-
ment need, and what SMC by its short-
sighted orientation fails to provide, is a
united front equipped to deal with the
politics o4 repression.
The SMC hopes to change government
policy by showing that a sizeable segment
of the government's constituency believes
all the GI's should be brought home now.
Accordingly, t h e y adopted a resolution
which calls for a w e e k of nationwide
demonstrations this spring which would
culminate in a mass action on April 15,
like the one which occurred at Washing-
ton last fall.
But after adopting this resolution, the
conference rejected one proposed by the
Independent Radicals which would have
supplemented the mass action with con-
tinuous mobilization against repression,
concentrating mostly on the local level.
The rejected proposal acknowledges
two important realities with which SMC
refuses to deal. First, it doubts the wis-
dom of relying solely on the Washington
type of demonstration, which has osten-
sibly s h o w n itself to be ineffective in
changing government policy. Second, and
more importantly, it raises the question
of the long range significance of the im-
mediate withdrawal of all GI's from Viet-
nam, even if it were to occur. It adknowl-
edges that such an action would on 1 y
Editorial Staff
HENRY GRIX, Editor
STEVE NISSEN RON LANTSMAN
City Editor Managing Editor
MARCIA ABRAMSON .....Associate Managing Editor
LANIE LIPPINCOTT ......Associate Managing Editor
STEVE ANZALONE .....Editorial Page Editor
JENNY STILLER ........Editorial Page Editor
CHRIS STEELE ...............Editorial Page Editor
LAWRENCE ROBBINS ...,......... ...Photo Editor
LESLIE WAYNE ... . .........Arts Editor
MAR' RADTKE .......Contributing Editor
PHIL. BLOCK...............Contributing Editor
WALTER SHAPIRO., Daily Washington correspondent
NIGHT EDITORS, Stuart Gannes, Martin Hirschman.
Jim Neubacher, Judy Sarasohn. David Spurr. Dan-
iel Zwerdling.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Alison Cooke, Russ
Garland, Carold Hildebrand, Judy Kahn, Pat Ma-
honey, Marty Scott, Alexa Canady, Lynn weiner,
and copy editors.
hn- em f.
temporarily stop the huge U.S. war ma-
chine, leaving it intact to br4ng the bur-
den of another, perhaps more extensive
war, on a placated American public.
The rejected proposal better reflects
the realities of political life in t h a t it
deals with the total repression which the
U.S. government practices, of which the
Vietnam war is only one aspect.
THE FACT is that if one looks, one .can
find the ugly and often bloody hand
of the U.S. government everywhere at-
tempting to squeeze the life out of pro-
gressive and, liberating forces.
The prisons of this country are filled
with black liberation leaders - H u e y
Newton, Bobby Seale, Martin Sostre, Ah-
med Evans. They are starting to be filled
with leaders of the white youth move-
ment - John Sinclair, Abbie Hoffman,
Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden.
In a sense, the entire country is be-
coming locked behind the bars of repres-
sive laws and institutions. The whole ef-
fect of the marijuana laws is to stifle in-
dividual expression and serve as a legal
means to keep "troublemakers" safely in
line.
And even if these laws are changed,
there still remains those immutable in-
stitutions such as the tax system and the
large war corporations and the d r a ft
which soak the money from the workers
and the life from the ghetto and the col-
leges and funnel them into the repression
of self-determination of peoples abroad.
T h a t there is repression everywhere,
and not only in Vietnam, is the f a c t
which SMC refuses to deal with. This is
precisely the fact which the rejected pro-
posal intended to confront and present to
the people of this country.
"EDUCATION" - in the sense of raising
the political consciousness of people
and making them aware of the nature
of the politics that victimizes them - is
what is needed, is what the Independent
Radicals proposed, and is what SMC so
ignominiously rejected.
Educating all the people about all the
repression all the time is dealing w i t h
that repression as effectively as it can
now be dealt with. Education must take
place on a local, not a mass level. It must
occur in the workshop and home and in-
stitution, not under Ahe Washington
Monument alone.
Once people are made aware, through
Judge Hoffman and the failure of American courts
By JIM NEUBACHER
IN THE AFTERMATH of t h e
contempt sentencing in the Chi-
cagosconspiracytrial, one thing
stands out - the defendants suc-
ceeded in pointing out the absurd-
ity of the conspiracy law, and the
repression inherent in the Amer-
ican system of justice.
Judge Julius Hoffman, a feeble
old man with no sense of humor
and even less sense of justice, pro-
vided the perfect target for the
defendants. And whether one ar-
gues that his actions were a re-
sponse to the behavior of the de-
fendant or vice versa, the end re-
sult is the same - hundreds of
thousands of Americans who be-
lieve wholeheartedly in t h e i r
country's system of justice have
had second thoughts as they have
watched this trial progess. In their
hearts, they know that what hap-
pened to the 'Chicago7'acould
happen to them.
THE DEGREE to which this
trial has alienated Americans on
all sides of the political spectrum
and undermined their faith in
the legal process is a fact not lost
on members of the legal profession.
They realize that for every citizen
offended by the actions of Judge
Hoffman, there is one equally
rankled about the actions of the
defendants; both kinds of disaffec-
tion serve to tarnish the image the
legal profession has spent centuries
trying to build -- that the court-
room scene is sacrosanct.
Thus, a committee of the Amer-
ican Bar Association has em-
barked on a study of ways in
which to prevent defendants from
"disrupting" courtroom proceed-
ings. Some suggestions include:
-Plastic bubbles or enclosures
for the obstreperous defendant,
a la the bulletproof shield used
in the 1962 Israeli trial of Adolph
Eichmann;
-Jailing the defendant, and pro-
viding him with ,daily minutes of
the trial or allowing him to watch
his fate be determined on tele-
vision;
-Increasing the contempt pow-
er of judges.
HERE AT THE UNIVERSITY,
Prof. A. Benjamin Handler of the
Department of Architecture a n d
Urban Planning is conducting a
Ford Foundation-financed study of
courtroom facilities, and the con-
tribution they can make to facil-
itating a fair, orderly legal pro-
cess.
Handler's study deals with every-
thing from courtroom acoustics to
automation of clerical work in
the court system. It seems natural
for this report to include a recom-
mendation on the implementation
of the "plastic bubble" idea, But he
is hesitant to do so.
"Let me make clear that tech-
nically there is no great diffi-
culty in coming up with a plastic
I
4
ed for the successful operation of
our system cannot be coerced
from angry defendants.
"The problem of disruption can-
not be solved through physical de-
vices, by restraint," he says. "The
root of the problem goes much
deeper than that."
adds, saying that the "c o u r t-
room may be the least of it."
Handler understands the prob-
lem very well. The situation is,
probably a lost cause once t h e
case reaches the courtroom. As
Handler puts it, "When a case
goes to trial it is sort of an ad-
mission of failure."
undermined completely by the con-
spiracy laws,; the wiretapping, and
the police-state surveilance t h a t
led to the Chicago trial in the first
place.
HANDLER WOULD LIKE to
find some sort of solution, or the
beginning of one.
4
I