Attorney General Frank Murphy Creates DOJ Civil Liberties Unit
Attorney General Frank Murphy on this day established the Civil Liberties Unit in the U.S. Justice Department, the forerunner of today’s Civil Rights Division. This marked the first time the federal government had an agency devoted to the active defense of the civil rights and civil liberties of the American people.
There is no evidence that President Franklin D. Roosevelt played a role in the creation of the unit, however; it appears to have been entirely the work of Murphy.
Because there were so few civil liberties/civil rights-related federal laws, the Civil Liberties Unit had very little work. In addition, southern segregationists in Congress worked hard to limit the size and activity of the unit. One issue the Unit did attempt to work on was peonage. Following the Civil War, Congress in 1867 passed the Anti-Peonage Act, designed to prohibit both recently freed slaves and poor whites being subject to virtual slavery through what was known as “debt slavery.” Poor farmers, both black and white, were often unable to pay the rental fees for farm land, seeds, farm equipment and other basic needs. On December 12, 1941 Attorney General Francis Biddle issues Circular #3591 to attorneys in the unit directing them to look for cases involving involuntary servitude, slavery, or peonage. The Civil Liberties Unit, however, was unable to bring many successful suits under the law.
The 1957 Civil Rights Act elevated the status of the unit to the Civil Rights Division, giving it greater resources and authority.
Roosevelt appointed Murphy U.S. Attorney General on January 2, 1939, and then to the Supreme Court on January 18, 1940. He continued to be a champion of civil liberties on the Court until his death in 1949. Murphy is especially famous for his dissent in Korematsu v. United States, decided on December 18, 1944, in which he denounced the racism in the evacuation and interment of the Japanese-Americans during World War II.
See the life of Frank Murphy that mentions this unit: http://www.michbar.org/journal/article.cfm?articleID=42&volumeID=6
On the early years of the Civil Liberties Unit, read Eleanor Bonetcou’s oral history interview at the Truman Library: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/bontecou.htm
Read Frank Murphy’s official Justice Department biography (with links to his speeches): http://www.justice.gov/ag/aghistpage.php?id=55
Learn more about Frank Murphy and civil liberties: http://uscivilliberties.org/biography/4177-murphy-frank-18901949.html
Visit today’s Civil Rights Division: http://www.justice.gov/crt/
Read Murphy’s Supreme Court biography: http://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_murphy.html