Francis Biddle

Lawyer, judge, and 58th US Attorney General

Francis Beverley Biddle (May 9, 1886 – October 4, 1968) was an American lawyer and judge who was the United States Attorney General during World War II . He also served as the primary American judge during the Nuremberg trials following World War II and a United States circuit judge of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit .

Early life and education

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Biddle was born in Paris , France, while his family was living abroad. He was one of four sons of Frances Brown (née Robinson) and Algernon Sydney Biddle , a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School of the Biddle family . He was also a great-great-grandson of Edmund Randolph (1753–1813) the seventh governor of Virginia , the second United States Secretary of State , and the first United States Attorney General . He graduated from Groton School , where he participated in boxing. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1909 from Harvard College and a Bachelor of Laws in 1911 from Harvard Law School .

Career

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Biddle first worked as a private secretary to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. from 1911 to 1912. He spent the next 27 years by practicing law in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . In 1912, he supported the presidential candidacy of former US President Theodore Roosevelt 's renegade Bull Moose Party . He was a special assistant to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1922 to 1926.

During World War I , he served as Private in the United States Army from October 23 to November 30, 1918. After he enlisted, he was detailed to the Field Artillery Central Officer's training school at Camp Taylor, Kentucky but the war ended during his training and he was discharged.

Roosevelt administration

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In the 1930s, Biddle was appointed to a number of important governmental roles. In 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated him to become Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board . On February 9, 1939, Roosevelt nominated Biddle to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit , to a seat vacated by Joseph Buffington . The United States Senate confirmed Biddle on February 28, 1939, and he received his commission on March 4, 1939. He served only one year in the role before resigning on January 22, 1940, to become the United States Solicitor General . This also turned out to be a short-lived position when Roosevelt nominated him to the position of Attorney General of the United States in 1941. During this time he also served as chief counsel to the Special Congressional Committee to Investigate the Tennessee Valley Authority from 1938 to 1939.

World War II

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During World War II , Biddle used the Espionage Act of 1917 to attempt to shut down "vermin publications", which included Father Coughlin 's publication entitled _Social Justice _. Biddle prosecuted several prominent left-wing individuals and organizations under the Smith Act . In 1941, he authorized the prosecution of 29 Socialist Workers Party members in a move that was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union . Under the act, he also tried unsuccessfully to have trade unionist Harry Bridges deported.

In 1942, Biddle became involved in a case in which a military tribunal appointed by Roosevelt tried eight captured Nazi agents for espionage and for planning sabotage in the United States as part of the German Operation Pastorius . Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Royall challenged Roosevelt's decision to prosecute the Germans in military tribunals by citing _Ex parte Milligan _ (1866), a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not establish military tribunals to try civilians in areas that civilian courts were functioning, even during wartime. Biddle respond

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