Felix Frankfurter

American jurist (1882–1965)

Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint .

Born in Vienna, Frankfurter immigrated with his family to New York City at age 12. He graduated from Harvard Law School and worked for Henry L. Stimson , the U.S. Secretary of War . Frankfurter served as Judge Advocate General during World War I . Afterward, he returned to Harvard and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union . He later became a friend and adviser of President Franklin D. Roosevelt . After Benjamin N. Cardozo died in 1938, Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter to the Supreme Court. Given his affiliations and alleged radicalism, the Senate confirmed Frankfurter's appointment only after its Judiciary Committee required him to testify in 1939, a practice that became routine in the 1950s.

His relations with colleagues were strained by ideological and personal differences, likely exacerbated by some antisemitism . His judicial restraint was first seen as relatively liberal, as conservative justices had used the derogation canon and plain meaning rule against Progressive economic legislation during the 1897–1937 Lochner era .

It became seen as somewhat conservative in civil liberties dissents as the Court moved left. His dissent in _West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette _ (1943) refers to his minority-group background as immaterial and was prompted by the new majority's repudiation of _Minersville School District v. Gobitis _ (1940), in which he had penned the restrained majority opinion.

In 1948, he hired William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. , the first black law clerk at the Court, though in 1960 Frankfurter declined to hire Ruth Bader Ginsburg , citing gender roles . In _Brown II _ (1955), he suggested the phrase "all deliberate speed" to endorse gradual racial integration . He held that redistricting was nonjusticiable in _Colegrove v. Green _ (1946) and _Baker v. Carr _ (1962), and his majority opinion in _Gomillion v. Lightfoot _ (1960) only upheld review under the Fifteenth Amendment . Frankfurter's other decisions include the majority opinion in _Beauharnais v. Illinois _ (1952) and dissents in _Glasser v. United States _ (1942) and _Trop v. Dulles _ (1958). He retired after a 1962 stroke, and was replaced with Arthur Goldberg .

Early life and education

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Frankfurter was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna (then part of Austria-Hungary). He was the third of six children of Leopold Frankfurter, a merchant, and Emma (Winter) Frankfurter. His father died in 1916. His mother died in January 1928 after a prolonged illness. His uncle, Solomon Frankfurter, was head librarian at the Vienna University Library .

Frankfurter's forebears had been rabbis for generations. In 1894, twelve-year-old Frankfurter and his family immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City's Lower East Side , a dense center of immigrants. Frankfurter attended P.S. 25 and Townsend Harris High School , where he excelled at his studies and enjoyed playing chess and shooting craps on the street. He spent many hours reading at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and attending political lectures, usually on subjects such as trade unionism , socialism , and communism .

After graduating in 1902 from City College of New York , where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa , Frankfurter worked for the Tenement House Department of New York City to raise money for law school. He applied successfully to Harvard Law School , where he excelled academically and socially. He became lifelong friends with Walter Lippmann and Horace Kallen , became an editor of the _Harvard Law Review _, and graduated first in his class with one of the best academic records since Louis Brandeis .

Early career

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Frankfurter's legal career began when he joined the New York law firm of Hornblower, Byrne, Miller & Potter in 1906. In the same year, he was hired as the assistant to Henry Stimson , the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York . During this period, Frankfurter read Herbert Croly 's book _[

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