European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 19, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                12 the stars and stripes William Safire january 1978 the presidents Effort to bamboozle the press when a congressman who knows he is under criminal investigation Calls the president of the United states to get him to Tell the attorney general to fire the prosecutor who is investigating and the president makes the Call and the prosecutor is fired is that an obstruction of jus Tice you bet it and the knowledge of his foolish complicity caused president Carter to try to deceive reporters in his press con Ference last asked about How he could Square the firing of Philadelphia attorney David mansion with the Carter Campaign pledge of taking politics out of such the president blandly said the replacement of Republican Marston was being handled by the attorney and Ive not interfered in it at reporters in the room who knew the opposite to be True were when the followup question Drew an equally untruthful response from the president Ive not discussed this Case with the at Torney general it became apparent that Carters duplicity would end Only when a question showed the press was aware of his of lilt Robert Shogan of the los Angeles times whose Book on Carter is aptly titled promises to told the president that the prosecutor he ordered fired was the midst of an investigation involving two democratic congressmen from Pennsylva and that there have been reports that at least one of them has sought to Contact the White House or to in effect get Mariton off their its James Relief for Federal courts needed five years have passed since a Blue Obbon commission recommended a new National court of nothing much has happened since then nothing much beyond a further increase in the flood of litigation that washes Over our Federal it is time to take a fresh look at the the recommendations of the commis Sion headed by Paul Freund were intended primarily to ease the Strain on the supreme though there is some dispute about what the figures the Basic data Are not in As recently As the High court received petitions for in the last the number swelled to More than petitions Are now running at an average of 90 a at owe Levels of Federal the picture is substantially toe same in the past 16 the number of civil cases filed in Federal District courts has soared from to in this the number of cases taken to the Federal District courts has More than in a the courts Are swamped it is no problem to explain the Why of this in recent years Congress has created new regulatory agencies As if it were incubating and every Agency has hatched a thousand regulations that provide the stuff of the supreme court in the years that chief Justice Earl Warren was in enormously expanded the rights of defendants in Crimi Nal cases most of the statistical increase in the High courts Case Load results from prisoners at As judge Shirley Hufstedler has pointed is the litigious nature of the american people and their mistaken View of the role of the Federal americans sue one another with reckless and they cherish a naive belief that Federal judges were meant to solve All the educational and economic issues of our none of these Root causes is subject to easy the incoming Congress will resume its struggle Over new but it is doubtful thai even Iso new judges at the District and circuit Levels will re Colum comments solve the troubling situation up problems cited by the commission five years ago have not gone away they have merely grown one such serious problem arises from continuing conflicts among the 11 judicial circuits on issues of Federal these Are not abstract interesting Only to judges and Law conflicts touch upon the admissibility of evidence in Crim Inal on the disposition of cases involving libel and on statutory questions of tax Law of surpassing concern to the scarcely an area of con temporary Law is untouched by the uncertainty that results when one circuit says Yea and another says another problem goes to the image of the High court and the Quality of its because of the intolerable volume of Peti the court can review less than 4 per cent of the cases in which review is sought scores of important cases that would have been heard 20 or 25 years ago have to be passed it is humanly impossible for the nine justices personally to give careful consideration to each of the petitions dumped in their in the most of the petitions have to be disposed of with a cursory glance or a clerks memo the great advantage of the National court of going beyond its role in resolving conflicts among the might lie in simple Relief of pressure at the supreme court the nine justices fritter away too much of their time on Nec Essary trivia and the trivia detract from the courts indispensable this is to think and having to decide and having to spell out the Rea sons for its decisions in convincing today justices have Little time for Reading and reflect and their opinions often show the Freund r commendations need not be endorsed in every but they address a critical need and they just might in any they Merit renewed  his recollection thus the ident suddenly recalled receiving a i from Pennsylvania congressman when i talked to the an general about it Eilberg had let c vie a be known on the Telephone said that a replacement would be As he was forced to change his j from not interfered and not disc this Case with the attorney general i president sought to create the Imprest that his talk with the attorney general been and not his talk with i congressman under that was a Clever and might have gotten away with it but fort Altmey generals refusal to join in after the presidents press Cor when attorney general Bell Kkt asked about the Call from the president 4fe reeling him to fire the plied that the president mentioned to him that congressman Eilberg had inquired about the status of f that Means thai president Carter spoke to his attorney general after Eilberg pleaded with him for Mars tons and not As the president sought to imply at his press what difference does the sequence of thir Calls make All the the in an obstruction of it Means tint s the presidents intercession came not in a f r general policy but at the Behest of the threatened i suspect that Carter made two Calls Altmey general before and congressman Ellberg and is trying to get us to concentrate on the less earlier that is his Clever Carter knew that if the attorney general blabbed about the later the president could claim he never said he did not Call the attorney general As Well but thai raises a different Why is the president of the presumably occupied with great issues and by nonpolitical on appointments at calling his attorney general twice to get him to fire one out of hundreds of attorneys and Why is Carter so desperate to pretend Ive not interfered in it at All and Ive not discussed this Case with the attorney general presidents ultimate defense will be that be bad no knowledge that Congress Jan Eilberg was under investigation by but the president has told us that congressman Eilberg told him he had no utter est in who would be inc replacement h you were and a con Gressman called to say i dont care who just gel rid Oft Houltz prosecutor would you not be a lad sushi congressman Eilberg also claims i have never been notified by anyone that i am the target of any Federal i Vestiga thais a verbal trick a Man knows when he is being investigated Long before he is officially notified he is a Plain logic suggests he wanted the prosecutor out before the prosecutor got to and he enlisted president Carter in his who knew about the Eilberg investigation in Justice Tim of the Crimi Nal tapped by Paul Sarbanes to be attorney in did he Tell division chief Ben who was senator Sarbanes Campaign treasurer who at the White and who suggested the president lean on Bell to rid the congressman of his problem we might find so All we can be of president Carter has demonstrably departed from the perhaps Tor Good and that the Marston massacre Public reaction has Only just be Tow York Tifft