Casner Law Takes Ames Semifinal; Goodrich Stresses Court Function

Casner Law Club won a mock trial against Cardozo Club in the Law School's first semi-final Ames competition last night, when Judge Herbert F. Goodrich, L.L.B. '14, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, declined Cardozo's appeal that a writ of Habeus Corpus be sustained in the "United States v. Stephen Crasnov."

In delivering the court's decision, Judge Goodrich stressed the purely judicial function of the court.

"We do not make the laws; we merely interpret them. We cannot change them...We are not the Supreme Court," he said. "This is a principle the courts must always bear in mind."

The second of the Ames semifinals will be held tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in the Langdell Courtroom between the Casner Equity Club and the Scott Club. Judge Harrie B. Chase of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will preside. The case will deal with the Federal wagering tax.

Stephen Crasnov, the appellant in last night's case, is an ex-communist alien who migrated to this country from Rumania in 1921, and lived here until he returned home in 1950 to visit members of his family. Upon his return to the United States he was refused admittance and his re-entry permit was cancelled by the Attorney General.

All requests for a hearing have been denied.

Exclusion Principle

Casner Law's speakers, Robert L. H. Hammerman 3L, and Murray Drabkin 3L, based their arguments on the right of the Attorney General to exclude on alien at his own discretion other as "undesirable," or as a "security risk." Hammerman mentioned that this principle had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Marcus Aaron 3L, and Richard J. Graving 3L, claimed unreasonable detention in Crasnov's case in their argument for Cardozo Club.

"There is no Constitutional authority for dental of a hearing to a resident alien," Aaron claimed.

The minimal rights of due process of law should be observed in any case, he pointed out.