The Effect of Proposed Jury Trial In Contempt Cases
Performed by William H. Taft
Recorded August 5, 1908
Under the provision of the
Democratic platform promising a jury trial in all
cases of indirect contempt, a recalcitrant witness
who refuses to obey a subpoena may insist on a jury
trial before the court can determine that he received
the subpoena. A citizen summoned as a juror, and refusing
to obey the writ when brought into court, must be
tried by another jury to determine whether he got
the summons. Such a provision applies not alone to
injunction, but to every order which the court issues
against perjury. A suit may be tried in the court
of first instance and carried to the court of appeals
and then to the Supreme Court. Then if the decree
involves the defendant doing anything or not doing
anything, and he disobeys it, the plaintiff who has
pursued his remedies in lawful court for years must,
to secure his rights, undergo the uncertainties and
the delays of a jury trial before he can enjoy that
which is his right of the decision of the highest
court of the land. I say without hesitation that such
a change will greatly impair the indispensable power
and authority of the court. In securing to the public
the benefits of the new statute, and acted in the
present administration, the ultimate instrumentality
to be resorted to is the courts of the United States.
If now their authority is thus to be weakened, how
can we expect that such statutes will have efficient
enforcement. If advocates seem to suppose that this
change in someway will inure only to the benefit of
the poor working man. As a matter of fact the person
who will secure chief advantage from it is the wealthy
and unscrupulous defendant able to employ astute and
cunning council and anxious to avoid justice. The
maintenance of the authority of the court is essential
unless we are prepared to embrace anarchy. Never in
the history of the country has there been such an
insidious attack upon the judicial system as the proposal
to interject the jury trial between all orders of
the court made after full hearing and the enforcement
of such order.