Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter
Official portrait, 1939
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office January 30, 1939 – August 28, 1962[1]
Nominated by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Benjamin Cardozo
Succeeded by	Arthur Goldberg
Personal details
Born	(1882-11-15)November 15, 1882 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	February 22, 1965(1965-02-22) (aged 82) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Mount Auburn Cemetery
Spouse	Marion Denman ​ (m. 1919)​
Education	City College of New York (BA) Harvard University (LLB)
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963)[2]
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1917–1918
Rank	Major
Unit	United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps
Battles/wars	World War I

Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-born American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 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 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.^[3][4] 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, replaced with Arthur Goldberg.