ASSOCIATE JUSTICE FELIX FRANKFURTER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 03/12/1915 - HFSID 41892

FELIX FRANKFURTER
Frankfurter handwrote and signed this letter of thanks on stationery from the Law School of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Miss Charlotte Rudyard in 1915.
Autograph letter signed: "F. F.", 1 page, 5¼x8, on letterhead from the Law School of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, In full: "No, this is not an attempted answer. Only thanks - and they cannot be intrusive, or perhaps the articulation that of course it didn't matter & there was no reason for working out any allegiance to the devil on so small a provocation. So - my thanks and it's thoroughly all right. I thought your comments kind and applicable & the friend will appreciate them!". Lightly toned and creased. Folded twice and unfolded. Otherwise, fine condition. Accompanied by: Original mailing envelope on stationery from the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Postmarked Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 12, 1915. Addressed to: "Miss Charlotte Rudyard/421 Wen 21th/ New York City." With one 2¢ red-and-white stamp affixed. Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Torn open at top. Adhesive residue and paper loss on verso (no show-through). Otherwise, fine condition. A renowned legal scholar, Frankfurter (1882-1965, born in Vienna, Austria) influenced Supreme Court decisions for more than 20 years (1939-1962). A former advisor to the NAACP and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Frankfurter had affirmed that any form of discrimination against Blacks violated the 15th Amendment (Lane vs. Wilson,1939). Believing that the Court should not interfere with laws established by the people's elected officials, he upheld President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. In the realm of civil liberties, Frankfurter would play a pivotal role in deciding the famous school desegregation case Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954), ensuring its historic importance by securing a unanimous decision. He dissented when the Court overturned Minersville West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette(1943) and when it ruled in favor of legislative reapportionment (Baker vs. Carr, 1962), which he felt was strictly a political problem to be solved by the legislature, not the judiciary. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the staunch advocate of judicial self-restraint stabilized the liberal Earl Warren Court and promoted "procedural fairness" in criminal cases. Frankfurter was presented the Medal of Freedom by John F. Kennedy in 1963. Two items.