A Rift in the Clouds by Aucoin Brent J.;

Author:Aucoin, Brent J.; [Aucoin, Brent J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press

CHAPTER 5

Conclusion

THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS demonstrate that Judges Jacob Trieber, Emory Speer, and Thomas G. Jones embraced a broad interpretation of the Reconstruction-era amendments when such a view was being rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. A complex admixture of cultural, political, legal, and personal ideas and ideals all coalesced to shape their more dissident—and unpopular—judicial perspective. Fundamentally, Trieber, Speer, and Jones acted in accordance with the prevailing legal philosophy of the day, classical legal thought (or legal formalism). They struggled to ground their decisions on precedent-based interpretations of legal sources, namely, the Constitution and relevant statutes.1 An examination of their opinions reveals a general adherence to this concept. These judges reached the conclusions that they did largely through their deferential adherence to proclamations made by justices of the Supreme Court. This deference to the high court was not without irony, for although the justices made statements that occasionally appeared to sanction a broad interpretation of the Reconstruction amendments, the Court essentially emasculated these same amendments during the Gilded Age.

It is significant and, again, probably ironic that, in his opinion in U.S. v. Morris, Judge Trieber utilized ten separate and in some cases quite lengthy quotes from previous Supreme Court rulings to make the case that the Thirteenth Amendment empowered Congress to protect blacks from racial discrimination.2 Likewise, Judge Speer quoted Justices Wood, Bradley, and Miller in his U.S. v. McClellan opinion on peonage. In his Riggins decision, Judge Jones quoted from several Supreme Court decisions in an effort to show that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments obligated the federal government to prosecute individuals who sought to deny African Americans their constitutional rights:

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