Parker v. Illinois (333 U.S. 571)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 5, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 333 U.S. 571 · 68 S. Ct. 708
- Docket
- No. 270
- Argued
- February 13, 1948
- Decided
- April 5, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Black, Justice Rutledge (wrote), Justice Murphy
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner, who was engaged in litigation in the Illinois courts with one Shamberg, was ordered on a motion for discovery to produce certain documents. He produced them by filing them with the clerk of the Illinois courts. Shamberg thereupon moved that petitioner be punished for contempt because the documents reflected on the integrity of the court. After a hearing petitioner was adjudged guilty of contempt. The court held that the order required only that petitioner produce the documents, not that he file them in court so as to make them public records; and that the filing of the documents containing statements deemed to be scurrilous constituted an obstruction of justice and an abuse of the processes of the court, tending to lessen the court’s dignity and authority. Petitioner was sentenced to jail for 90 days. That was on January 15, 1945. Petitioner thereupon sought a writ of error in the Illinois Supreme Court for review of the order of January 15. The writ of error was refused on January 23, 1945. Later in the same day the trial court, over petitioner’s objection and in his presence, issued an amended order adjudging him guilty of contempt and sentencing him to jail for 90 days. This amendment was made, it is said, to cure certain defects in the order of January 15 and to bring it into conformity with the…
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