University of Virginia Library

Top Judicial Biographer

Mason To Speak On Court

One of the nation's most noted
judicial biographers, Alpheus T. Mason,
will speak on "The Supreme
Court Under Fire". The lecture will
be presented in the McGregor
Room of the Alderman Library.

Mr. Mason has been recognized
in the past for his knowledge and
strong stands on Constitutional law
in America. Following the installation

of Earl Warren as Supreme
Court Chief Justice in 1953, Mr.
Mason described the appointment
as an "Eisenhower court-packing
move". However, he is now of the
opinion that the Warren court has
led a revolution in the fields of race
relations, reapportionment and
rules of criminal procedure. Mr.
Mason has also written articles in
support of the recent nomination
of Justice Abe Fortas to the Chief
Justice position.

Mr. Mason came to the University
in September of this year
after serving on the faculty of
Princeton University since 1925. He
became a full professor there in
1936 and since has built a fine
reputation in the fields of Government
and Law as testified by his
official title of a Henry L. and
Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation
Professor of Government and
Law.

In his forty-five year stay at
Princeton Mr. Mason has not only
built a national reputation but a
student reputation as well. As a
result of several student polls, he
received the honor of being named
the professor with the toughest
course in Princeton. This student
feeling was attributed to the fact
that he conducted his classes in
groups of seven or eight and during
his small discussion sessions he expected
not only an intimate knowledge
of the week's extensive
reading but he also expected his
students to correlate the assigned
cases with those that occurred two
hundred years earlier.

Mr. Mason matriculated at
Dickinson College in 1920 and followed
his A.B. by obtaining his
M.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton in
1921 and 1923 respectively. His
published works form an impressive
list. He has written on many Supreme
Court Justices, among them
Louis D. Brandeis and Chief Justice
William H. Taft. Mr. Mason considers
his study of Constitutional
law, "Harlan Fiske Stone: Pillar of
Law", to be his most significant
book.

Mr. Mason's lecture tomorrow
evening is sponsored by the Omicron
Delta Kappa National Leadership
Society and the Student
Legal Forum.

All students are cordially invited.