Library Research
UPA
American Studies
Papers of Supreme Court Justices: Earl Warren
Part 2: Conference Memoranda
Series A: 1953–1955, and Series B: 1956–1959
Papers of Supreme Court Justices: Earl Warren,
Part 2: Conference Memoranda, consists of
summaries of petitions before the U.S. Supreme
Court. In these memoranda, the authors—
usually clerks but often Chief Justice Warren
himself—review petitions for a hearing before
the Court, highlight the major issues involved in
the petitioner’s claim, assess the existence of a
substantial question of federal or constitutional
law, and make a recommendation to grant or
deny certiorari. Many of the documents include
annotations and emendations by Warren and
others made as the memoranda were circulated
among the Supreme Court justices and clerks. The
files are organized chronologically by term; within
the term, the cases appear in numerical order
under the appropriate category of the petition
(appellate, miscellaneous, original, and sundry).
Series A includes all of Warren’s conference
memoranda files, regarding over 4,700 cases, for
the 1953 through 1955 terms, the chief justice’s
first three years on the Court. Series B consists of
the conference memoranda for the 1956 through
1959 terms covering more than 7,000 cases.
The conference memoranda often include background information on
the cases, research that usually did not make it into the final opinion.
Here is the background research prepared by one of Warren’s law clerk
in the “baseball cases” (Toolson v. Yankees, Kowalski v. Chandler, and
Corbett v. Chandler).
Library Research
Most petitions come before the Supreme Court as appeals of
decisions of lower courts (the appellate file), requesting a review
of any number of issues from the basic facts of the case to procedural matters to questions of the constitutionality of a state or
federal law or government regulation. Miscellaneous petitions
generally involve questions of criminal procedure, requests for
habeas corpus, or requests to file in forma pauperis, the petitions
from indigent defendants unable to afford various court fees. The
U.S. Constitution limits the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction,
and the few cases in the original files in this collection involve
disputes between two states over boundaries and shared water
rights. The sundry files here include only a few cases, mostly
This memo considers three cases, Toolson v. Yankees, Kowalski v.
Chandler, and Corbett v. Chandler, in which the main issue was the
application of antitrust laws to professional baseball.
applications for bail or habeas corpus that did not come through
the same channels as miscellaneous petitions, and petitions for
stays of execution or stays of administrative proceedings.
The documents reproduced in this microfilm collection provide a
window into some of the pressing legal controversies of the early
post-World War II era, allowing researchers to examine a crosssection of the most contentious questions and problems working
their way through the American legal system in the 1950s. Labor
unions and corporate employers seek to address the intricacies
of federal labor-management law. African American petitioners request reviews of discriminatory practices in state and local
In this case, Walker v. Texas, Warren’s handwritten comments can be
seen at the top of the page. Warren often wrote detailed comments,
even for cases in which the Court denied certiorari.
Library Research
government services and judicial proceedings. Companies and
individuals apply for reconsideration of government taxation and
regulatory rulings. Conscientious objectors seek exemptions from
the military draft. Poor defendants appeal for relief from attorney
and court costs that hinder their appeals. And the country as a
whole considers the potential threat that domestic communism
represents for national security.
The following is just a small sampling of the many interesting cases
in these files
Ames v. California, challenging the seizure of evidence leading to the
conviction of a doctor and nurse who were performing abortions
Bell v. U.S., testing the constitutionality of the federal White-Slave
Traffic Act, or Mann Act, restrictions on the interstate transportation
of women for immoral purposes
Eubanks v. Louisiana and Fikes v. Alabama, criminal cases pertaining
to the exclusion of African Americans from juries
Frozen Food Express v. U.S. and Interstate Commerce Commission,
one of many cases involving the scope of federal regulation of freight
transportation and the definition of interstate commerce
Mitchell v. Joyce Agency, Inc., one of many cases involving the
applicability of federal labor law to certain types of workers, in this
instance, whether security guards were entitled to the same overtime
pay provisions as other employees engaged in manufacturing
Partmar Corp v. Paramount Pictures, a case involving the screening of Paramount movies, in which Warren’s law clerk wrote: “This
is a confusing case, made more so by the fact that the CA [Court of
Appeals] wrote no opinion, the DC [District Court] wrote a long but
ambiguous one, and the briefs of the parties are more ponderous
than precise”
Quinn v. U.S. and Emspak v. U.S., stemming from investigations by
the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) into the
backgrounds of suspected Communists and Communist
sympathizers
Reid v. Covert and Kinsella v. Krueger, two cases addressing the
appropriateness of military tribunals passing judgment on civilian
dependents of U.S. military personnel overseas
Toolson v. Yankees, Kowalski v. Chandler, and Corbett v. Chandler,
three cases regarding professional baseball and antitrust laws
Ullman v. U.S., the first Supreme Court challenge involving federal
Immunity Act provisions for witnesses in national security cases
United States v. DuPont & Co., concerning anti-trust and restraint of
trade violations under the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act
Williams v. Georgia, a capital case involving an African American
defendant and charges of racial discrimination in jury proceedings
Warren’s handwritten comments on Gold v. U.S., one of several cases
pertaining to communism and civil liberties.
Yates v. United States, Schneiderman v. United States, Richmond
and Connelly v. United States, and Mesarosh v. United States, four
cases in which the defendants had been convicted under the Smith
Act for advocating the violent overthrow of the government
U.S. v. International Union UAW-CIO, regarding political contributions by a labor union
Library Research
Overall, the conference memoranda will be of interest to students of the U.S. Supreme Court and students of post-World War
II U.S. history because they provide insights into the thinking of
Chief Justice Earl Warren and his law clerks, as well as a very
detailed snapshot of the most contested social, political, and
economic questions facing the United States in the 1950s.
Papers of Supreme Court Justices: Earl Warren
Part 2: Conference Memoranda
Series A: 1953–1955
16 reels PIN 102589
Series B: 1956–1959
33 reels PIN 103266
Source Note: Filmed from the Earl Warren Papers in
the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C. Images courtesy of the National Archives
of the United States and the Library of Congress Manuscript
Division and Prints and Photographs Division.
Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board dealt with the
constitutionality of the federal Internal Security Act.
For more information,
contact your sales representative or visit
http://academic.lexisnexis.com
LexisNexis, the Knowledge Burst logo, and Nexis are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier
Properties Inc., used under license. © 2008 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
All rights reserved. PIN 102589, 103266