Frank Murphy

American judge (1890–1949)

For other people named Frank Murphy, see Frank Murphy (disambiguation) .

"Justice Murphy" redirects here. For other uses, see Justice Murphy (disambiguation) .

William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890 – July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Harbor Beach , Michigan . He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving as United States Attorney General , 35th governor of Michigan , and Mayor of Detroit . He also served as the last American Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner to the Philippines .

Born in "The Thumb " region of Michigan, Murphy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1914. After serving in the United States Army during World War I , he served as a federal attorney and trial judge. He served as Mayor of Detroit from 1930 to 1933. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him among the ten best mayors in American history. In 1933 he was appointed as Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. He returned home in 1936 and defeated incumbent Republican governor Frank Fitzgerald in the 1936 Michigan gubernatorial election and served a single term as Governor of Michigan. Murphy lost re-election to Fitzgerald in 1938 and accepted an appointment as the United States Attorney General the following year.

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Murphy to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Pierce Butler . Murphy served on the Court from 1940 until his death in 1949, and was succeeded by Tom C. Clark . Murphy wrote the Court's majority opinions in _Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire _ and _SEC v. W. J. Howey Co. _, and wrote a dissenting opinion in _Korematsu v. United States _.

Early life

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Murphy was born in Harbor Beach (then called Sand Beach), Michigan , in 1890. Both his parents, John T. Murphy and Mary Brennan, were Irish immigrants and raised him as a devout Catholic . He followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a lawyer. He attended the University of Michigan Law School , and graduated with a BA in 1912 and an LLB in 1914. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and the senior society Michigamua .

Murphy was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 1914, after which he clerked with a Detroit law firm for three years. He then served with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I , achieving the rank of captain with the occupation army in Germany before leaving the service in 1919. He remained abroad afterward to pursue graduate studies. He did his graduate work at Lincoln's Inn in London and Trinity College, Dublin , which was said to be formative for his judicial philosophy. He developed a need to decide cases based on his more holistic notions of justice, eschewing technical legal arguments. As one commentator quipped of his later Supreme Court service, he "tempered justice with Murphy."

Career

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1919–1922: U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan

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Murphy was appointed and took the oath of office as the first Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan on August 9, 1919. He was one of three assistant attorneys in the office.

When Murphy began his career as a federal attorney, the workload of the attorney's office was increasing at a rapid rate, mainly because of the number of prosecutions resulting from the enforcement of national prohibition . The government's excellent record in winning convictions in the Eastern District was partially due to Murphy's record of winning all but one of the cases he prosecuted. He practiced law privately to a limited extent while still a federal attorney, and resigned his position as a United States attorney on March 1, 1922. He had several offers to join private practices, but decided to go it alone and formed a partnership with Edward G. Kemp in Detroit .

1923–1930: Recorder's Court

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Murphy ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the United States Congress in 1920, when national and state Republicans swept Michigan, but used his legal reputation and growing political connections to win a seat on the Recorder's Court , Detroit's criminal court. In 1923, he was elected judge of the Recorder's Court on a non-partisan ticket by one of the largest majorities ever cast for a judge in Detroit, took office on January 1, 1924, and served seven years during the [Prohibition era](https://en.wik

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