DOCSLIB.ORG

The Role of Robert H. Jackson in Franklin D Roosevelt's Battle with the Supreme Court

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Role of Robert H. Jackson in Franklin D Roosevelt's Battle with the Supreme Court William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal Volume 5 (1996-1997) Issue 2 Article 4 May 1997 Loyal Lieutenant, Able Advocate: The Role of Robert H. Jackson in Franklin D Roosevelt's Battle with the Supreme Court Stephen R. Alton [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons Repository Citation Stephen R. Alton, Loyal Lieutenant, Able Advocate: The Role of Robert H. Jackson in Franklin D Roosevelt's Battle with the Supreme Court, 5 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 527 (1997), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol5/iss2/4 Copyright c 1997 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj LOYAL LIEUTENANT, ABLE ADVOCATE: THE ROLE OF ROBERT H. JACKSON IN FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S BATTLE WITH THE SUPREME COURT Stephen R. Alton* Before his appointment to the Supreme Court,Justice Robert H. Jackson played a highly visible role in FranklinD. Roosevelt's failed "court packing plan. " Roosevelt's legislation would have increased the size of the Supreme Court and could have dramatically altered the functioning of our govern- ment. Jackson supported the plan from his post as Assistant Attorney Gener- al. This Article uses a chronological narrative to examine Jackson's role in Roosevelt's court fight. The Article examines his role in light of the sur- rounding history and the tension between the backers of the New Deal and the Supreme Court. Jackson's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee was widely viewed as the most effective representation which the plan received. Roughly contemporaneously with his Senate testimony, Jackson gave five public addresses, some before groups adamantly opposed to the plan. De- spite the poor prospects for the court legislation and his own ambivalence regarding the plan, Jackson worked loyally to sell Roosevelt's idea. This Article examines Jackson's often overlooked support of the court packing " Associate Dean and Professor of Law, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law; J.S.D. candidate, Columbia University School of Law. A.B., Harvard College, 1978; J.D., University of Texas School of Law, 1981; ED.M., Harvard University Graduate School of Education, 1986; LL.M., Columbia University School of Law, 1992. This article was written in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of the Science of Law in the Faculty of Law, Columbia University. I would like to thank the following people for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article: Dean Malinda Seymore; Phillip Robertson, .Esquire; Dean Walter Pratt; Dean Dennis Olson; Professor Julia Armstrong; and Judith Kuhn Alton, Esquire. I also would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Professor Eben Moglen, for his comments, advice, and guid- ance. In addition, I am grateful for the help given to me by the staff of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, the Oral History Research Office of Columbia University, the Special Collections Division of the University of Virginia Library, and the Research Room of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. I also am grateful to the Oral History Research Office of Columbia University, the Library of the University of Vir- ginia, and William E. Jackson, Esquire for their generosity in permitting me to quote from certain unpublished works, and to Warner Gardner, Esquire, and the late Joseph Rauh, Jr., Esquire, for allowing me to interview them for this article. Finally, I grateful- ly acknowledge the financial support of the Lawrence A. Wien Foundation, whose gen- erosity permitted me to pursue my J.S.D. studies at Columbia University School of Law, and the financial support of Texas Wesleyan University, whose generosity facili- tated my research. WILLIAM & MARY BILL OF RIGHTS JOURNAL [Vol. 5:2 plan and provides considerable insight into the future Justice, illuminating both his strong political instincts and his blossoming abilities as an advo- cate. INTRODUCTION In 1934, Robert H. Jackson, future Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, left his home in Jamestown, New York and, at the age of forty-two, went to New Deal Washington to serve as general counsel of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.1 Jackson had established a successful law prac- tice in Jamestown and was involved in Democratic Party politics at both the local and state levels.2 Two years after his arrival in the nation's capital, the Western New Yorker transferred to the Department of Justice to become the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Tax Division.' In January 1937, on the eve of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's announcement of his plan to "reorganize" the federal judiciary, Assistant Attorney General Jackson was asked to head the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.4 It was in this role that Jackson participated in the 1937 battle over Roosevelt's so-called "court packing plan." During the months that the fight raged (February to July), Jackson's official position continued to be that of Assistant Attorney General in charge of Antitrust. The Solicitor Generalship, the Attorney Gen- eralship, and the Supreme Court Associate Justiceship all lay in Jackson's future. He would serve in each of those capacities in turn, taking his seat on the Court in 1941.' Jackson's background distinguished him from many other New Dealers. Forty-two years old when he first arrived in the nation's capital, Jackson was neither an aging party hack nor one of the legion of Felix Frankfurter's young Turks.6 Instead, Jackson was a seasoned, canny, and successful trial attorney who, in the tradition of Louis D. Brandeis, had established his EUGENE C. GERHART, AMERICA'S ADVOCATE: ROBERT H. JACKSON 66-67 (1958). 2 Id. at 62-64. 3 Id. at 83-84. 4 Id. at 88; see Warner W. Gardner, Robert H. Jackson: 1892-1954--Government Attorney, 55 COLUM. L. REV. 438 (1955); William L. Ransom, Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson, 27 A.B.A. J. 478 (1941). 5 See GERHART, supra note 1, at 229-34. 6 As a professor at Harvard Law School during this period, Frankfurter sent many of his brightest young students to Washington to work for the New Deal. WILLIAM E. LEUCHTENBURG, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AND THE NEW DEAL: 1932-1940, at 64 (1963). For more on Frankfurter's efforts in this regard, see JEROLD S. AUERBACH, UN- EQUAL JUSTICE: LAWYERS AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN MODERN AMERICA 167-73 (1976). 19971 LOYAL LIEUTENANT, ABLE ADVOCATE 529 professional reputation by representing small businesses.7 Largely self-edu- cated beyond the high school level, Jackson never attended college and spent only one year at a night law school;8 most of his legal training was acquired through an apprenticeship in a Jamestown law office.9 In the words of Warner Gardner, an attorney who worked closely with Jackson during the latter's tenure as Solicitor General, Jackson was "the ablest advo- cate to be drawn to Washington, and the foremost of the 'Roosevelt law- yers,' . [yet he] never served a day except in 'old line' agencies .... A lawyer he had been, and a lawyer he remained until he took his place on the Supreme Court."1 Jackson was an advocate, not a policy-maker. It was as the administration's case for reforming the an advocate that he presented 1 United States Supreme Court to the public and to Congress. ' It is undeniable that Jackson's rise from the Bureau of Internal Revenue to the Supreme Court (accomplished in a span of slightly more than seven years) was uncommonly rapid. Warner Gardner opined that "nobody in his- tory has ever risen as rapidly as he."' 2 Jackson's remarkably rapid rise is 7 GERHART, supra note 1, at 48-62. 8 Jackson attended Albany Law School. Id. at 34. 9 See Gardner, supra note 4, at 439; Ransom, supra note 4, at 480. 10 Gardner, supra note 4, at 438. " Auerbach summed up the paradoxes embodied in Jackson, the New Dealer: Robert H. Jackson was an unlikely New Deal lawyer. The prototypical New Deal- er was an upwardly mobile urbanite, a second-generation member of an ethnic minority group with superior academic credentials and, perhaps, some Wall Street experience. Jackson was the obverse: an upstate Protestant New Yorker who never attended college, attended but never graduated from Albany Law School, served an apprenticeship in a Jamestown law office, and incessantly preached the nineteenth-century virtues of the small-town practitioner: "hard work, long hours, and thrift." . The consummate advocate, he defended the New Deal as special counsel for the Securities and Exchange Commission, as assistant attorney general in the tax and antitrust divisions of the Justice Department, and as solicitor gener- al and attorney general. Regardless of office, Jackson remained the nineteenth- century liberal in the twentieth century; his anachronistic liberalism was conspicu- ous, yet as a New Dealer he seemed to march in step with the times. This was less paradoxical than might appear. His critique of the legal profession, a recur- ring theme in his public addresses, focused on the corporate lawyer as the person- ification of wrongdoing; for his was the animus of Main Street displaced profes- sionally by Wall Street. Jackson's New Deal colleagues, who voiced similar com- plaints, fired at the same target for different reasons. Theirs was the cry of con- temporary politics; his was the voice of nostalgic betrayal. AUERBACH, supra note 6, at 174-75. See generally id. at 174-76. Jamestown, incidental- ly, is in Western New York-not, strictly speaking, "upstate." Such misdescription of the town seems to be a common mistake.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In Defence of the Court's Integrity
    In Defence of the Court’s Integrity 17 In Defence of the Court’s Integrity: The Role of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes in the Defeat of the Court-Packing Plan of 1937 Ryan Coates Honours, Durham University ‘No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed for the worse. We are a young nation and nothing can be taken for granted. If our institutions are maintained in their integrity, and if change shall mean improvement, it will be because the intelligent and the worthy constantly generate the motive power which, distributed over a thousand lines of communication, develops that appreciation of the standards of decency and justice which we have delighted to call the common sense of the American people.’ Hughes in 1909 ‘Our institutions were not designed to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had been, we might well abandon hope.’ Hughes in 1925 ‘While what I am about to say would ordinarily be held in confidence, I feel that I am justified in revealing it in defence of the Court’s integrity.’ Hughes in the 1940s In early 1927, ten years before his intervention against the court-packing plan, Charles Evans Hughes, former Governor of New York, former Republican presidential candidate, former Secretary of State, and most significantly, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, delivered a series 18 history in the making vol. 3 no. 2 of lectures at his alma mater, Columbia University, on the subject of the Supreme Court.1 These lectures were published the following year as The Supreme Court: Its Foundation, Methods and Achievements (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928).
    [Show full text]
  • C H a P T E R 24 the Great Depression and the New Deal
    NASH.7654.CP24.p790-825.vpdf 9/23/05 3:26 PM Page 790 CHAPTER 24 The Great Depression and the New Deal The WPA (Works Progress Administration) hired artists from 1935 to 1943 to create murals for public buildings. The assumption was not only that “artists need to eat too,” as Harry Hop- kins announced, but also that art was an important part of culture and should be supported by the federal government. Here Moses Soyer, a Philadelphia artist, depicts WPA artists creating a mural. Do you think it is appropriate for the government to subsidize artists? (Moses Soyer, Artists on WPA, 1935. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC/Art Resource, New York) American Stories Coming of Age and Riding the Rails During the Depression Flickering in a Seattle movie theater in the depths of the Great Depression, the Holly- wood production Wild Boys of the Road captivated 13-year-old Robert Symmonds.The film, released in 1933, told the story of boys hitching rides on trains and tramping 790 NASH.7654.CP24.p790-825.vpdf 9/23/05 3:26 PM Page 791 CHAPTER OUTLINE around the country. It was supposed to warn teenagers of the dangers of rail riding, The Great Depression but for some it had the opposite effect. Robert, a boy from a middle-class home, al- The Depression Begins ready had a fascination with hobos. He had watched his mother give sand- Hoover and the Great Depression wiches to the transient men who sometimes knocked on the back door. He had taken to hanging around the “Hooverville” shantytown south of Economic Decline the King Street railroad station, where he would sit next to the fires and A Global Depression listen to the rail riders’ stories.
    [Show full text]
  • Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
    Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE. NEW YORK "This is the house in which my husband was born and brought up.... He alwl!Ys felt that this was his home, and he loved the house and the view, the woods, special trees .... " -Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt. 32d President of the United States was born in this home on January 30. 1882. He was the only child of James and Sara Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt spent much of his life here. Here Franklin-the toddler. the little boy. the young man-was shaped and grew to maturity. Here he brought his bride. Eleanor. in 1905. and here they raised their five children. From here he began his political career that stretched from the New York State Senate to the White House. Roose- velt was a State senator. 1911-13. Assistant Sec- retary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. 1913- 20. and unsuccessful vice-presidential candidate in 1920. Then. in 1921. he contracted infantile paralysis. During his struggle to conquer the disease he spent much time here. He refused to become an invalid and reentered politics. He was elected Governor of New York in 1928 and 1930 and President of the United States in 1932. As Governor and President. he came here as often as he could for respite from the turmoil of public life. On April 15. 1945. 3 days after his death in Warm Springs. Ga.. President Roosevelt was buried in the family rose garden. Seventeen years later. on November 10. 1962. Mrs. Roosevelt was buried beside the President.
    [Show full text]
  • The Importance of Dissent and the Imperative of Judicial Civility
    Valparaiso University Law Review Volume 28 Number 2 Symposium on Civility and Judicial Ethics in the 1990s: Professionalism in the pp.583-646 Practice of Law Symposium on Civility and Judicial Ethics in the 1990s: Professionalism in the Practice of Law The Importance of Dissent and the Imperative of Judicial Civility Edward McGlynn Gaffney Jr. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Edward McGlynn Gaffney Jr., The Importance of Dissent and the Imperative of Judicial Civility, 28 Val. U. L. Rev. 583 (1994). Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol28/iss2/5 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Valparaiso University Law Review by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Gaffney: The Importance of Dissent and the Imperative of Judicial Civility THE IMPORTANCE OF DISSENT AND THE IMPERATIVE OF JUDICIAL CIVILITY EDWARD McGLYNN GAFFNEY, JR.* A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of a future day, when a later decision may possibly correct the errorinto which the dissentingjudge believes the court to have been betrayed... Independence does not mean cantankerousness and ajudge may be a strongjudge without being an impossibleperson. Nothing is more distressing on any bench than the exhibition of a captious, impatient, querulous spirit.' Charles Evans Hughes I. INTRODUCTION Charles Evans Hughes served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1910 to 1916 and as Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941.
    [Show full text]
  • Ftssrjf *•* ^ All Sales Final
    Notes From the Social Calendar of Washington and Its Environs Mrs. Roosevelt Attends Morning Musicale By the Way— Beth Blaine= With Guests ^RRIVING in Washington this afternoon in time to attend the tea at the Polish Embassy are Mrs. Harold E. Talbott of New York and Long Island and Miss Beatrice Patterson of Wife of the President to Give Philadelphia. The tea today at the Embassy is given more or less in compliment Party for Grandchildren to the former Jane Sanford and her husoand, Mario Panza; who are here en route to Palm Beach. They are stopping with Prince This Afternoon. del Drago of the Italian Embassy, who was best man at their last ROOSEVELT attended Mrs. Lawrence Townsend’s wedding year. Tonight Mrs. Talbott and Miss Patterson will be seen at the morning musicale today, having as guests Mme. Saito, National Theater and later at Mr. and Mrs. Mathews Dicks’ supper, wife of the MRS. Japanese Ambassador; Countess van der which promises to be one of the better late evening parties. They Straten-Ponthoz, wife of the Ambassador of Belgium, and her are checking in at the Mayflower around 4 o’clock and will stay daughters-in-law, Mrs. James Roosevelt and Mrs. Franklin over until after lunch tomorrow. * * * * Roosevelt, jr. The program was given by Bino Rabinof, violinist, and Beveridge Webster, pianist. This# afternoon Mrs. Roosevelt 'J'O LOOK at Mrs. Albert Cushing Read it seems impossible that will give a party for her grandchildren, Chandler Roosevelt and she could be celebrating her twentieth wedding anniversary, very youthful Elliott Roosevelt, jr.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 18: Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1933-1939
    Roosevelt and the New Deal 1933–1939 Why It Matters Unlike Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was willing to employ deficit spending and greater federal regulation to revive the depressed economy. In response to his requests, Congress passed a host of new programs. Millions of people received relief to alleviate their suffering, but the New Deal did not really end the Depression. It did, however, permanently expand the federal government’s role in providing basic security for citizens. The Impact Today Certain New Deal legislation still carries great importance in American social policy. • The Social Security Act still provides retirement benefits, aid to needy groups, and unemployment and disability insurance. • The National Labor Relations Act still protects the right of workers to unionize. • Safeguards were instituted to help prevent another devastating stock market crash. • The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation still protects bank deposits. The American Republic Since 1877 Video The Chapter 18 video, “Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal,” describes the personal and political challenges Franklin Roosevelt faced as president. 1928 1931 • Franklin Delano • The Empire State Building 1933 Roosevelt elected opens for business • Gold standard abandoned governor of New York • Federal Emergency Relief 1929 Act and Agricultural • Great Depression begins Adjustment Act passed ▲ ▲ Hoover F. Roosevelt ▲ 1929–1933 ▲ 1933–1945 1928 1931 1934 ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ 1930 1931 • Germany’s Nazi Party wins • German unemployment 1933 1928 107 seats in Reichstag reaches 5.6 million • Adolf Hitler appointed • Alexander Fleming German chancellor • Surrealist artist Salvador discovers penicillin Dali paints Persistence • Japan withdraws from of Memory League of Nations 550 In this Ben Shahn mural detail, New Deal planners (at right) design the town of Jersey Homesteads as a home for impoverished immigrants.
    [Show full text]
  • Academic Search Complete
    Academic Search Complete Pavadinimas Prenumerata nuo Prenumerata iki Metai nuo Metai iki 1 Technology times 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20140601 20210327 2 Organization Development Review 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20190101 3 PRESENCE: Virtual & Augmented Reality 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20180101 4 Television Week 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20030310 20090601 5 Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardinal Bellarmine 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 6 U.S. News & World Report: The Report 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20200124 7 Education Journal Review 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20180101 8 BioCycle CONNECT 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20200108 9 High Power Computing 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20191001 10 Economic Review (Uzbekistan) 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20130801 11 Civil Disobedience 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 12 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 13 IUP Journal of Environmental & Healthcare Law 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 14 View of the Revolution (Through Indian Eyes) 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 15 Narrative of Her Life: Mary Jemison 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 16 Follette's Platform of 1924 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 17 Dred Scott, Plaintiff in Error, v. John F. A. Sanford 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 18 U.S. News - The Civic Report 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20180928 20200117 19 Supreme Court Cases: The Twenty-first Century (2000 - Present) 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 20 Geophysical Report 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 21 Adult Literacy 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 2000 22 Report on In-Class Variables: Fall 1987 & Fall 1992 2021-04-01 2021-12-31 2000 23 Report of investigation : the Aldrich Ames espionage case / Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,2021-04-01 U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Franklin Roosevelt's Advisory System: the Institutionalization of the Executive Office of the Esidentpr
    University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Student Work 7-1-1974 Franklin Roosevelt's advisory system: The institutionalization of the Executive office of the esidentPr James C. Rowling University of Nebraska at Omaha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork Recommended Citation Rowling, James C., "Franklin Roosevelt's advisory system: The institutionalization of the Executive office of the President" (1974). Student Work. 488. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/488 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Work by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT*S ADVISORY SYSTEM: THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT A Thesis Presented to the Department of Political Science and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska at Omaha In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by James C. Rowling July, 197^ 1 UMI Number: EP73126 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI EP73126 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC.
    [Show full text]
  • “The National Voice” Across the Bayard and Ringo Stories
    UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE POPULAR FAULKNER: THE DEVELOPMENT OF “THE NATIONAL VOICE” ACROSS THE BAYARD AND RINGO STORIES A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By WILLIAM WILDE JANUARY VI Norman, Oklahoma 2018 POPULAR FAULKNER: THE DEVELOPMENT OF “THE NATIONAL VOICE” ACROSS THE BAYARD AND RINGO STORIES A THESIS APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH BY ______________________________ Dr. James Zeigler, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Daniela Garofalo ______________________________ Dr. William Henry McDonald © Copyright by WILLIAM WILDE JANUARY VI 2018 All Rights Reserved. To Claire, as a monument to our adventure in Oklahoma. Acknowledgements This project is in many ways the culmination of everything I have done before, and thus it is necessary to acknowledge everyone I have had the pleasure to have known the past three years in the University of Oklahoma English Department: faculty, staff, and my fellow graduate students. In particular, I would like to thank both Dr. McDonald and Dr. Garofalo for not only serving on my committee, but for teaching seminars so influential that they changed the way that I viewed the world and, subsequently, my future plans. In a similar vein, I would like to thank Dr. John Burke and Dr. William Ulmer at the University of Alabama, as I would have never even been here without their part in shaping my formless undergraduate curiosity into the more disciplined inquisitiveness of a scholar. Most of all, I am indebted to my Chair, Dr. James Zeigler, who has over the past three years listened carefully to every road not taken by this work, and always provided clear, helpful feedback as well as a sense of positivity that has made all the difference in its completion.
    [Show full text]
  • A Jewish Seat on the Supreme Court
    A Jewish seat on the Supreme Court? By Shiela Steinman Wallace February 13, 2003 https://www.jta.org/2003/02/13/lifestyle/a-jewish-seat-on-the- supreme-court Is there a Jewish seat on the Supreme Court? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg contends that there once was, but that is no longer the case. She explored the subject during the 2003 Louis D. Brandeis Lecture on Tuesday, February 11, at the Seelbach Hotel. Immediately following the lecture, the University of Louisville’s Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Brandeis Scholars presented Justice Ginsburg with the Brandeis Medal. The medal recognizes individuals whose lives reflect Justice Brandeis’ commitment to the ideals of individual liberty, concern for the disadvantaged and public service. Judah Benjamin While Justice Brandeis was the first Jew appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg pointed out that he was not the first Jew nominated for the position. That honor went to Louisiana Sen. Judah Benjamin, who was nominated by President Millard Fillmore in 1851. Benjamin declined the honor, preferring to remain in the Senate, because, Justice Ginsburg noted, the Supreme Court had not yet achieved full equality as a branch of government. Benjamin resigned his Senate seat in 1861 when Louisiana suceeded from the Union and went on to hold leadership positions in the Confederacy. When the Confederacy was defeated, Benjamin fled to England and, at age 60, built another successful career as a barrister there, even serving as Queen’s Counsel. What is most remarkable about Benjamin, Justice Ginsburg pointed out is that he achieved such a high level of success twice in his lifetime in spite of a great deal of anti-Semitic activity at that time.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Supreme Court History
    Journal of Supreme Court History THE SUPREME COURT HISTORICAL SOCIETY THURGOOD MARSHALL Associate Justice (1967-1991) Journal of Supreme Court History PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr. Chairman Donald B. Ayer Louis R. Cohen Charles Cooper Kenneth S. Geller James J. Kilpatrick Melvin I. Urofsky BOARD OF EDITORS Melvin I. Urofsky, Chairman Herman Belz Craig Joyce David O'Brien David J. Bodenhamer Laura Kalman Michael Parrish Kermit Hall Maeva Marcus Philippa Strum MANAGING EDITOR Clare Cushman CONSULTING EDITORS Kathleen Shurtleff Patricia R. Evans James J. Kilpatrick Jennifer M. Lowe David T. Pride Supreme Court Historical Society Board of Trustees Honorary Chairman William H. Rehnquist Honorary Trustees Harry A. Blackmun Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Byron R. White Chairman President DwightD.Opperman Leon Silverman Vice Presidents VincentC. Burke,Jr. Frank C. Jones E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr. Secretary Treasurer Virginia Warren Daly Sheldon S. Cohen Trustees George Adams Frank B. Gilbert Stephen W. Nealon HennanBelz Dorothy Tapper Goldman Gordon O. Pehrson Barbara A. Black John D. Gordan III Leon Polsky Hugo L. Black, J r. William T. Gossett Charles B. Renfrew Vera Brown Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. William Bradford Reynolds Wade Burger Judith Richards Hope John R. Risher, Jr. Patricia Dwinnell Butler William E. Jackson Harvey Rishikof Andrew M. Coats Rob M. Jones William P. Rogers William T. Coleman,1r. James 1. Kilpatrick Jonathan C. Rose F. Elwood Davis Peter A. Knowles Jerold S. Solovy George Didden IIJ Harvey C. Koch Kenneth Starr Charlton Dietz Jerome B. Libin Cathleen Douglas Stone John T. Dolan Maureen F. Mahoney Agnes N. Williams James Duff Howard T.
    [Show full text]
  • October 5, 2019
    THE FOUR FREEDOMS AWARDS THE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE The Four Freedoms Awards are presented to individuals and organizations whose Presents achievements have demonstrated a commitment to the principles which President Roosevelt proclaimed in his historic speech to Congress on January 6, 1941, as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. The Roosevelt Institute has awarded the Four Freedoms Medals to some of the most distinguished Americans and world citizens of our time, including Presidents Truman, Carter, and Clinton; Nelson Mandela; Coretta Scott King; Arthur Miller; Desmond Tutu; and the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Four Freedoms Awards are presented in alternating years by the Roosevelt Institute in the U.S. and Roosevelt Stichting in the Netherlands. We are honored to host a delegation of guests from the Netherlands in Hyde Park for the 2019 awards. THE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE Until economic and social rules work for all Americans, they’re not working. Inspired by the legacy of Franklin and Eleanor, the Roosevelt Institute reimagines the rules to create a nation where everyone enjoys a fair share of our collective prosperity. OCTOBER 5, 2019 We are a 21st century think tank, bringing together multiple generations of thinkers and leaders to help drive key economic and social debates and have local and national impact. The Roosevelt Institute is also the nonprofit partner to the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is America’s first presidential library—and the only one used by a sitting president.
    [Show full text]