Supreme Court Will Not Pass On Wisdom of Law, Says Frankfurter

Americans should not look to the Supreme Court for decisions on the wisdom of legislative policies, Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, said in the opening address of the three-day Marshall Conference.

Since judges are fallible men, Frankfurter said, they must move slowly in invoking the "due process" clause of the Constitution to nullify federal or state action, whether the question before them involves property rights or civil rights.

"Judges are but men and man's most piercing discernment of the future," the eminent judge said, "cannot see very far beyond his day, even when guided by the prophet's insight and the compassionate humility of a Lincoln."

What is constitutional is not necessarily right and what is unconstitutional is not necessarily wrong in terms of policy, Frankfurter said. "No matter how often the Court disavows that it is not passing on policy when determining constitutionality, the emphasis on constitutionality and its fascination for the American public seriously confound problems of constitutionality with the merits of the policy," Frankfurter said.