Legal Opinion · Dissent
Chaplin v. United States
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Decided April 15, 1946No. 9042Published
1DissentEdgerton, Associate Justice
The court holds that “the great weight of authority * * * compels us”. This is a new rule and an important one. I think it is erroneous.
Usually there are good reasons for a doctrine which is widely accepted, and uniformity itself has some value even in criminal law. Accordingly we should consider the weight of authority elsewhere for what it may be worth. But we should not determine our action by a count of foreign cases regardless of logic, consistency, and social need. “The social value of a rule has become a test of growing power and importance”.1 We should decide the question before us…
2Cases cited11 opinions
- Funk v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United States · 1933
- Ross v. HartmanCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit · 1943
- George's Radio, Inc. v. Capital Transit Co.Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit · 1942
- Campbell v. New York Evening Post, Inc.New York Court of Appeals · 1927
- Commonwealth v. MorrisonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1925
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