Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter
Official portrait, 1939
Felix Frankfurter
Born	15 11, 1882
Birthplace	Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	Template:Death date and age Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Jurist, legal scholar
Known for	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; judicial restraint; co-founding the American Civil Liberties Union
Education	Harvard University (LL.B.)
Spouse(s)	Marion Denman Frankfurter
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963)

Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Austrian-born American jurist, legal scholar, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1939 until 1962. A Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York City at the age of twelve speaking no English, Frankfurter rose to become one of the most influential legal minds of the twentieth century—first as a professor at Harvard Law School, then as an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ultimately as a justice whose philosophy of judicial restraint shaped American constitutional jurisprudence for decades. Before his appointment to the Court, Frankfurter helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and was an outspoken advocate on civil liberties matters, including his prominent intervention in the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Nominated by Roosevelt to succeed Benjamin N. Cardozo, Frankfurter became the first Supreme Court nominee required to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a practice that would become standard in subsequent decades. On the bench, his commitment to judicial restraint—the principle that courts should defer to the elected branches of government—initially aligned him with liberal outcomes during the aftermath of the Lochner era but increasingly placed him in dissent as the Court moved in a more activist direction on civil liberties questions. His tenure produced landmark opinions and dissents that continue to be studied and debated by legal scholars.

Early Life

Felix Frankfurter was born on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, then part of Austria-Hungary. His father, Leopold Frankfurter, was a merchant, and the family was Jewish. In 1894, when Frankfurter was twelve years old, his family emigrated to the United States, settling on the Lower East Side of New York City. The young Frankfurter arrived speaking no English, a circumstance that would make his subsequent academic and professional achievements all the more remarkable.

Frankfurter grew up in the densely populated immigrant neighborhoods of Manhattan, where he was immersed in the intellectual and social ferment of turn-of-the-century New York. He attended public schools in the city, where he proved to be an exceptional student. His early experiences as a Jewish immigrant in a city teeming with diverse populations shaped his lifelong interest in civil liberties and the rights of minorities, though on the bench he would insist that his personal background should not influence his judicial reasoning.

The Lower East Side of the 1890s was a crucible for many future American leaders and intellectuals, and Frankfurter absorbed the progressive political currents of the era. His family's modest circumstances did not prevent him from pursuing higher education, and his intellectual gifts were apparent to those around him from an early age. The experience of being an outsider—an immigrant, a Jew, a non-native English speaker—informed Frankfurter's worldview even as he insisted throughout his judicial career that judges should set aside personal experience in favor of principled legal reasoning.

Education

Frankfurter attended the City College of New York before enrolling at Harvard Law School, where he graduated with distinction. At Harvard, he came under the influence of the school's rigorous case-method approach to legal education and formed lasting connections with faculty and fellow students who would become important figures in American law and politics. His academic performance at Harvard Law School was outstanding, and he was invited to join the Harvard Law Review, a distinction that marked him as one of the most promising young legal minds of his generation.

After completing his LL.B. at Harvard, Frankfurter was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, reflecting his broad intellectual accomplishments. His time at Harvard established a lifelong attachment to the institution; he would later return as a professor and remain connected to the law school for decades.

Career

Early Legal Career and Government Service

Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Frankfurter went to work for Henry L. Stimson, who was then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. This association with Stimson proved formative, and Frankfurter followed Stimson to Washington, D.C. when Stimson was appointed U.S. Secretary of War under President William Howard Taft. During this period, Frankfurter gained valuable experience in federal government and developed the network of political and legal connections that would define his career.

During World War I, Frankfurter served in the United States Army as a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, holding the rank of Major. In this capacity, he dealt with military legal matters during the wartime emergency, gaining further experience in the intersection of law and government policy. His wartime service also brought him into contact with senior government officials and deepened his understanding of executive power during times of national crisis.

Harvard Law School Professor

After the war, Frankfurter returned to Harvard Law School, where he joined the faculty and became one of the most prominent law professors in the country. His teaching, writing, and public advocacy made him a central figure in American legal thought during the 1920s and 1930s. At Harvard, Frankfurter trained a generation of lawyers who would go on to serve in Roosevelt's New Deal administration and in other important legal positions, earning them the informal nickname "Happy Hot Dogs" in some press accounts.

During his years at Harvard, Frankfurter helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), reflecting his commitment to civil liberties and free expression. He was also deeply involved in the Sacco and Vanzetti case, publishing a widely read article in 1927 that criticized the fairness of the trial and conviction of the two Italian anarchists. The article, later expanded into a book, argued that the defendants had not received a fair trial and that prejudice against immigrants and radicals had tainted the proceedings. His involvement in the case brought him national attention and also drew criticism from those who viewed him as a radical.

Frankfurter's Harvard years also saw him become a close adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt, first during Roosevelt's tenure as Governor of New York and then during his presidency. Frankfurter helped place many of his former students in key positions within the New Deal administration and advised Roosevelt on legal and policy matters. His influence on the New Deal was substantial, and he was widely recognized as one of the president's most trusted legal advisers.

Brad Snyder's 2022 biography, Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment, documented the extensive scope of Frankfurter's influence during this period, arguing that he was instrumental in shaping the liberal legal establishment that dominated American law and politics for much of the twentieth century.

Supreme Court Nomination and Confirmation

Following the death of Associate Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo in 1938, President Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. The nomination was notable for several reasons. Frankfurter was an immigrant and a Jew at a time when antisemitism remained a significant force in American society. His involvement in progressive causes and his close association with the New Deal had also earned him a reputation in some quarters as a radical.

Given these affiliations and concerns about his alleged radicalism, the Senate Judiciary Committee took the unprecedented step of requiring Frankfurter to testify before the committee—the first time a Supreme Court nominee had been asked to do so. This practice, which began with Frankfurter's confirmation in 1939, later became a routine part of the confirmation process in the 1950s and beyond. Despite the scrutiny, the Senate confirmed his appointment, and Frankfurter took his seat on the Court on January 30, 1939.

Supreme Court Tenure

Frankfurter served as an Associate Justice for twenty-three years, from 1939 to 1962. His judicial philosophy was rooted in the principle of judicial restraint—the belief that courts should defer to the legislative and executive branches of government and avoid substituting their own policy preferences for those of elected officials. This philosophy had its origins in the progressive critique of the Supreme Court's activist stance during the Lochner era (approximately 1897–1937), when conservative justices had used doctrines such as the derogation canon and the plain meaning rule to strike down progressive economic legislation.

Initially, Frankfurter's judicial restraint was perceived as a liberal position, since it aligned with deference to New Deal economic regulation and progressive legislation. However, as the Court moved to the left on civil liberties questions during the 1940s and 1950s, Frankfurter's insistence on restraint placed him increasingly at odds with more activist colleagues, and his position came to be seen as relatively conservative.

Flag Salute Cases

Among the most notable episodes of Frankfurter's tenure were the flag salute cases. In Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), Frankfurter wrote the majority opinion upholding a Pennsylvania school district's requirement that students salute the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The case involved Jehovah's Witness students who refused to salute the flag on religious grounds. Frankfurter, applying his philosophy of judicial restraint, held that the Court should defer to the legislature's judgment that the flag salute requirement served a legitimate purpose of promoting national unity.

Just three years later, however, the Court reversed itself in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943). Frankfurter dissented, writing a notable opinion in which he acknowledged his personal background as a member of a minority group—as a Jew, he wrote, he had particular reason to sympathize with those who faced majoritarian pressure—but argued that his personal feelings were immaterial to the legal question, which he believed required deference to the elected legislature. The dissent has been widely discussed by legal scholars as a powerful statement of the tension between personal conviction and judicial duty.

Civil Rights and Racial Equality

Frankfurter played an important, if complex, role in the Court's landmark decisions on racial equality. In 1948, he hired William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. as his law clerk, making Coleman the first African American law clerk in the history of the Supreme Court. This decision was significant both symbolically and practically, as Coleman went on to a distinguished career in law and government.

In the landmark school desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Frankfurter supported the unanimous decision striking down racial segregation in public schools. In the subsequent Brown II decision (1955), which addressed the implementation of desegregation, Frankfurter suggested the phrase "all deliberate speed" to describe the pace at which school districts should proceed with integration. The phrase became one of the most debated in the history of American constitutional law, with critics arguing that it effectively endorsed gradualism and allowed Southern states to delay compliance with the Court's desegregation mandate.

In Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960), Frankfurter wrote the majority opinion striking down a racial gerrymander in Tuskegee, Alabama, where the state legislature had redrawn the city's boundaries to exclude virtually all African American voters. Frankfurter's opinion, however, rested on the Fifteenth Amendment's prohibition against racial discrimination in voting, rather than on the broader Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, reflecting his characteristic caution about judicial overreach.

Redistricting and the Political Question Doctrine

Frankfurter was a prominent advocate for the view that questions of legislative redistricting were nonjusticiable—that is, not appropriate for resolution by the courts. In Colegrove v. Green (1946), he articulated this position, arguing that the apportionment of legislative districts was a "political thicket" that the Court should avoid entering. He maintained this position in Baker v. Carr (1962), one of the last cases decided before his retirement, in which the majority ruled that redistricting claims were justiciable. Frankfurter dissented, warning that judicial involvement in redistricting would embroil the courts in inherently political disputes.

Other Notable Opinions

In Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952), Frankfurter wrote the majority opinion upholding an Illinois group libel statute that criminalized publications portraying racial or religious groups in a negative light. The decision, which addressed the tension between free speech and the protection of minority groups from defamatory attacks, remains a subject of scholarly debate.

Frankfurter also wrote notable dissents in several important cases. In Glasser v. United States (1942), he dissented from the majority's interpretation of the right to counsel. In Trop v. Dulles (1958), he dissented from the majority's holding that stripping a person of citizenship as punishment constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Relations with Colleagues

Frankfurter's relationships with his fellow justices were often strained. His personality—described by contemporaries as intensely argumentative, lecturing, and sometimes overbearing—contributed to tensions on the Court. Ideological differences with more liberal justices such as Hugo Black and William O. Douglas further complicated matters. Some accounts have suggested that antisemitism among certain colleagues may have exacerbated these difficulties. Jeffrey Rosen, writing in The Atlantic, described Frankfurter as "the greatest talker of his time," a characterization that captured both his intellectual brilliance and his tendency to dominate conversations and alienate colleagues.

Hiring Practices

Frankfurter's record on hiring law clerks reflected both progressive and conservative tendencies. His hiring of William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. in 1948 was a landmark in the history of the Supreme Court. However, in 1960, Frankfurter declined to hire Ruth Bader Ginsburg—who had been recommended to him by a colleague at Harvard—reportedly citing concerns about gender roles. Ginsburg, who later became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court herself, recalled the episode in interviews.

Retirement

Frankfurter suffered a stroke in 1962, which compelled him to retire from the Supreme Court on August 28, 1962. He was succeeded by Arthur Goldberg, who was nominated by President John F. Kennedy.

Personal Life

Felix Frankfurter married Marion Denman in 1919. Marion Denman Frankfurter was the daughter of a Congregational minister, and the marriage represented a crossing of religious and cultural boundaries that was unusual for the era. The couple had no children.

Frankfurter was known for his extraordinary sociability and his talent for conversation. He cultivated friendships and professional relationships across a wide spectrum of American public life, counting among his correspondents and associates presidents, senators, judges, academics, journalists, and civil servants. His personal papers, preserved at the Harvard Law School Library, document these extensive connections.

Frankfurter's rocking chair, a well-known fixture of his chambers, is now kept on the fourth floor of the Harvard Law School Library, serving as a tangible reminder of his long association with the institution.

Frankfurter was also involved in Zionist causes earlier in his career, and his papers include correspondence related to these activities.

Frankfurter died on February 22, 1965, in Washington, D.C. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Recognition

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy awarded Frankfurter the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in recognition of his contributions to American law and public life.

Frankfurter's legacy has been the subject of extensive scholarly analysis. Brad Snyder's 2022 biography, Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment, provided a comprehensive reassessment of Frankfurter's career and influence. The book was reviewed in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Harvard Law Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

The PBS documentary series The Supreme Court included a profile of Frankfurter as part of its coverage of the Court's history.

Frankfurter's oral history and personal papers at Harvard Law School and the Library of Congress remain important resources for scholars of American legal and political history.

Legacy

Felix Frankfurter's legacy in American law and jurisprudence is complex and subject to continuing reappraisal. His philosophy of judicial restraint—the belief that courts should defer to democratically elected branches of government—was rooted in the progressive critique of the Lochner-era Court, which had used judicial activism to strike down economic regulation. Frankfurter carried this philosophy to the Supreme Court, where it initially aligned him with liberal outcomes. As the Court's center of gravity shifted leftward on civil liberties questions, however, Frankfurter's restraint placed him in opposition to colleagues who favored a more expansive reading of constitutional protections for individual rights.

The tension between Frankfurter's progressive personal convictions and his commitment to judicial restraint has been a central theme in evaluations of his career. His dissent in Barnette, in which he argued that his personal sympathies as a member of a minority group were irrelevant to the constitutional question, remains one of the most frequently cited statements of the restraintist position. At the same time, his suggestion of "all deliberate speed" in Brown II has been criticized for providing legal cover for delay in the implementation of school desegregation.

Frankfurter's influence extended beyond his judicial opinions. As a Harvard Law School professor and adviser to President Roosevelt, he helped shape the New Deal and trained a generation of lawyers who staffed the federal government during a transformative period in American history. Paul Finkelman, reviewing Snyder's biography in the Los Angeles Review of Books, described Frankfurter as a figure of "many faces," whose contributions to American law were as multifaceted as they were consequential.

His hiring of William Thaddeus Coleman Jr. as the first African American Supreme Court law clerk represented an important step in the integration of the nation's highest legal institution. His refusal to hire Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by contrast, illustrated the limits of his progressivism on questions of gender. These episodes, taken together, capture the contradictions that characterized Frankfurter's life and career.

Frankfurter's judicial philosophy continues to be invoked in debates over the proper role of courts in American democracy. Questions about the limits of judicial power, the relationship between personal conviction and legal interpretation, and the pace of social change through law remain central to American constitutional discourse, and Frankfurter's career provides a rich and contested case study for each of these questions.