room for the
proper conduct of business, the court must act instantly to suppress
disturbance or violence or physical obstruction or disrespect to the
court when occurring in open court. There is no need of evidence or
assistance of counsel before punishment, because the court has seen the
offense. Such summary vindication of the court's dignity and authority
is necessary. It has always been so in the courts of the common law and
the punishment imposed is due process of law."[41] The Chief Justice
then added: "Another feature of this case seems to call for remark. The
power of contempt which a judge must have and exercise in protecting the
due and orderly administration of justice and in maintaining the
authority and dignity of the court is most important and indispensable.
But its exercise is a delicate one and care is needed to avoid arbitrary
or oppressive conclusions. This rule of caution is more mandatory where
the contempt charged has in it the element of personal criticism or
attack upon the judge. The judge must banish the slightest personal
impulse to reprisal, but he should not bend backward and injure the
authority of the court by too great leniency. The substitution of
another judge would avoid either tendency but it is not always possible.
Of course where acts of contempt are palpably aggravated by a personal
attack upon the judge in order to drive the judge out of the case for
ulterior reasons, the scheme should not be permitted to succeed. But
attempts of this kind are rare. All of such cases, however, present
difficult questions for the judge. All we can say upon the whole matter
is that where conditions do not make it impracticable, or where the
delay may not injure public or private right, a judge called upon to act
in a case of contempt by personal attack upon him, may, without
flinching from his duty, properly ask that one of his fellow judges take
his place. Cornish _v._ United States, 299 F. 283, 285; Toledo Newspaper
Co. _v._ United States, 237 F. 986, 988. The case before us is one in
which the issue between the judge and the parties had come to involve
marked personal feeling that did not make for an impartial and calm
judicial consideration and conclusion, as the statement of the
proceedings abundantly shows."[42]

Contempt Power: Punishment of Counsel; Sacher Case

This case[43] is an outgrowth of the trial of the eleven Communists,[44]
in which Sacher et al. were counsel for the defense. T