Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965), American jurist and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1939 to 1962.

Frankfurter was born in Vienna and brought to the U.S. in 1894. He was educated at the College of the City of New York (now City College) and Harvard University. He served as assistant U.S. attorney in New York City (1906-10) and in the War Department (1910-14). As a teacher at Harvard Law School (1914-39), he became known as a leading authority on constitutional law. A longtime adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frankfurter recommended to the president many of the executives who were selected to administer the agencies established under the New Deal; he was instrumental in writing the Securities Act (1933), Securities Exchange Act (1934), Public Utility Holding Company Act (1935), and other New Deal legislation affecting the railroads and labor.

In 1939 Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter as an associate justice of the Supreme Court; he served on the Court until 1962, when he retired because of illness. Legal and political observers expected Frankfurter to join the liberal wing of the Court; instead, he became known as the leader of the conservative members of that body. His philosophy was one of judicial restraint. He believed that the Court should not interfere with the rulings of state legislatures and Congress, which represent the will of the electorate. His opinions often supported the right of the state and federal governments to self-protection, as in the ruling of 1951 upholding the conviction of 11 leaders of the Communist party for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government by force. Frankfurter's concern for states' rights is evidenced by his dissent from a Court decision in 1962 requiring reapportionment of state legislatures.

Frankfurter wrote many books and articles on legal matters, including The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti (1927) and Of Law and Men; Papers and Addresses, 1939-56 (1956). Felix Frankfurter Reminisces (1960) is an autobiography, and Roosevelt and Frankfurter (1968) is a collection of letters exchanged by the two men between 1928 and 1945.