Barnett Hollander, of the Will of Lester Field, Deceased v. United States

Judge Frank has aptly said that “some judicial legislation is one of the unavoidable facts of life.” Nevertheless he felt it necessary to couple this with the warning that “judicial law-making should always be cautiously employed and should be severely restricted in scope.” New England Coal & Coke Co. v. Rutland R. Co., 2 Cir., 143 F.2d 179, 189. So Judge Learned Hand puts it thus: “It is always a dangerous business to fill in the text of a statute from its purposes, and, although it is a duty often unavoidable, it is utterly unwarranted unless the omission from, or corruption of, the text is…