1916 June 1

Louis Brandeis, Civil Liberties Giant, Joins Supreme Court

 

Appointed by President Woodrow Wilson, Louis Brandeis joined the Supreme Court on this day. He is recognized as one of the greatest justices ever to serve on the court, particularly on civil liberties issues.

Brandeis was first Jewish-American Supreme Court Justice, and he faced significant opposition to his appointment, some of which was openly anti-Semitic.

Brandies joined Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ pivotal dissent in Abrams v. United States (November 10, 1919) on the role of free speech in a democracy. He also wrote an extremely eloquent and influential concurring opinion in Whitney v. California (May 16, 1927) (which reads like a dissent) on the scope of the First Amendment, and a dissent in Olmstead v. United States (June 4, 1928) regarding the right to privacy.

Brandeis served on the Court for 23 years, retiring in 1939. He was replaced by Felix Frankfurter, who was also Jewish, and his appointment established what became for decades an unspoken “Jewish seat” on the court.

Read the biography: Jeffrey Rosen, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet (2016)

Also read: Melvin I. Urofsky: Louis Brandeis: A Life (2009)

Watch a documentary on Brandeis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjT53pbk1Tk

Brandeis’ historic 1928 opinion on privacy: “The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s spiritual nature, of his feelings, and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men.”

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