Former High Court Justice Clark Defends Warren Court's Decisions

"No civilization in all history has made the improvements in criminal justice that this country has made in the last 15 years," Tom C. Clark, retired Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, said in the Law School Forum last night.

Clark repeatedly implored the audience of 300 to help convince the public of the validity of the Court's controversial decisions. "The Court can't enforce morals or mores," he said. "It will take soul-searching and crusading by good people like you." He praised youth's idealism, zeal, and dedication, and said, "With this new generation, we've really improved upon ourselves."

Obsession

Clark, who retired from the Court in 1967 when his son became Attorney General, said the popular conception of the Court reaching out to correct wrongs it sees in the society is incorrect. "Often a case triggers a rash of others, making the public think the Court is obsessed with an issue," he said.

He returned frequently to the threat that the Bill of Rights will be amended to rescind the Court's recent decisions. "I hope and believe that the American public will realize that so long as someone else is deprived of justice, they are deprived of justice," he said. He said that the First and Fifth Amendments, special targets of right-wingers, prevent "that knock on the door in the middle of the night."

Clark said he agreed with Justice Hugo Black's televised statement that the wording of the Brown vs. Board of Education school desegregation decision was "unfortunate." "By deliberate speed we didn't mean an eternity," he said. "We're human, too--some people think that we're not, that we have horns, but we don't."