Mr. Justice Minton and the Truman Bloc

Abstract

The difficulty with this article is deciding what to include in it. I start with certain facts and certain theories that have to be worked with in delineating Mr. Justice Minton's first year. A fact of great importance is that the United States Supreme Court is a collegiate body. Mr. Justice Minton is one of nine. Hence the Justice's first year is in many respects simply the Supreme Court's 159th. Yet the 159th year surely differed from the 158th, and Mr. Justice Minton partly explains the difference. That means either that I write purely about Mr. Justice Minton and produce a distorted picture or I write an article about the 1949-50 term. Certainly I shall not do the latter, for that is competently handled by others and in any event was not asked for by the Editors of this Journal. A distorted picture it must be then.