Today in Supreme Court History: January 30, 1939

1/30/1939: Justice Felix Frankfurter takes oath.

Justice Felix Frankfurter

Comments

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

When I was a kid, his name always made me giggle. Otherwise I know nothing of him. Was he fun at bbqs?

[Cal Cetín]

I dunno, but I'd divide his career into:

-Influential law professor, good at getting his students into federal jobs, especially under FDR - these ex-students were called "happy hot dogs" (because "felix" means happy and "frankfurter"...well, you know).

-Supreme Court justice - kept the New Deal flame burning, supported federal centralization and limiting economic rights, just like his colleagues - but opposed the more "liberal" New Deal faction which sought a more aggressive promotion of non-economic rights vis-a-vis the government. He wasn't fully consistent, but generally he liked deferring to the feds (and to a lesser extent the states) re noneconomic liberties - thus earning himself the epithet "conservative" - a serious allegation which strikes me as unfair.

[Bob from Ohio]

"he would for many years feud with liberals like Justices Black and Douglas.[53] He often complained that they "started with a result" and that their work was "shoddy," "result-oriented," and "demagogic".[74] Similarly, Frankfurter panned the work of Chief Justice Earl Warren as "dishonest nonsense".[76]" wikipedia

100% accurate

[bernard11]

I've always wondered what decisions of the Warren Court earned it the disdain of conservatives.

Maybe, instead of launching a broadside, you could be more specific.

Brown? Griswold? Miranda? Loving?

Let's hear it.

[David Nieporent]

Well, with Bob it probably starts with Gideon.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Pompous, lecturing law professor, continued to be a pompous, lecturing law professor even when he was appointed to a collegial court.