Immigrant of the Day: Felix Frankfurter

Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882–February 22, 1965) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Born in Vienna, Austria, he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1894, and grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. After graduating from City College of New York, Frankfurter enrolled in New York Law School and transferred to Harvard Law School, where he became an editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated with one of the best academic records since Justice Louis Brandeis.

In 1906, Frankfurter became the assistant of Henry Stimson, a New York attorney. In 1911, President Taft appointed Stimson as his Secretary of War and Stimson appointed Frankfurter as law officer of the Bureau of Insular Affairs. During WWI, he acted as major and judge-advocate, and as secretary and counsel of the President's mediation commission.  In 1918, leaders within the American Jewish community convened the first American Jewish Congress in Philadelphia. Frankfurter, joined by Rabbi Stephen Wise, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and others to lay the groundwork for a national Democratic organization comprised of Jewish leaders from all over the country, to rally for equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, religion or national ancestry.

In 1920, Frankfurter helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union. In the late 1920s, he joined efforts to save the lives of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two anarchists who had been sentenced to death.

On January 5, 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter to the U.S. Supreme Court.  After a quick confirmation, Franfurter served from January 30, 1939 to August 28, 1962. Frankfurter became the Court's most outspoken advocate of judicial restraint. He was heavily influenced by his close friend and mentor Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.  In practice, this meant Frankfurter was generally willing to uphold the actions of government against constitutional challenges. Later in his career, this philosophy frequently put him on the dissenting side of ground-breaking decisions of the Warren court.  However, Frankfurter joined the Court's unanimous opinion in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Frankfurter retired in 1962 after suffering a stroke. He died at 83.  Frankfurter was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.  The Library of Congress has an extensive collection of Frankfurter's papers. (here).

KJ