"I Shall Remain"

Bellicose William Clark, 62, the highest-ranking U.S. judge in Germany, bathes in controversy with the warm contentment most men reserve for their tubs. In 1930, as the nation's youngest federal judge, Clark briefly attained fame if not professional stature by declaring unconstitutional the Prohibition amendment to the Constitution, a feat requiring judicial originality, at least. He was quickly and unanimously overruled by the Supreme Court.

Appointed to the U.S. court of appeals in 1938, Clark left the bench during World War II, served as a colonel on General MacArthur's staff and later in the European Theater. When he returned to find his place on the bench filled, he sued the U.S., claiming that the G.I. Bill of Rights guaranteed him job tenure during military service. He lost the suit, but the Administration in 1948 was able to find another judgeship for the heir to the Clark O.N.T.* thread fortune. Clark was exported to Germany as chief justice of the court of appeals under U.S. occupation. He set about irritating a succession of U.S. High Commissioners in Germany, notably the present Commissioner, James B. Conant.

Last month, in a move hardly calculated to endear him to HICOG, Clark accepted the chairmanship of a bar-association committee investigating wiretap allegations against the Conant administration. He also attacked a new law, signed by Conant, requiring special HICOG permission before German officials can be called before U.S. courts.

Word soon came from the U.S. State Department that Clark's commission, which expires next month, would not be renewed, because the "probable decline in business" before his court had made him "surplus." The judge was outraged: the State Department, he said, "doesn't have the guts to come out and say it's merely trying to get rid of me." He announced a sit-down strike. He would, he said, stay in Germany and go right on being chief justice even after January when his commission expires. Last week State sent Clark a "reminder" that he had been ordered to report back to Washington, but the judge was adamant. "I'm still here," he said, "and I intend to stay here." If the State Department tries to stop his pay, Clark plans to act according to form. Said he: "I'll sue."

All in all, William Clark has had a career without parallel on the bench, and he doesn't see why it should stop.

* "Our New Thread."

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