ASSOCIATE JUSTICE FELIX FRANKFURTER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 09/02/1941 - HFSID 258508

FELIX FRANKFURTER
He asks for copies of a magazine with photographs of the great London fire of 1941
Autograph Letter Signed: "Felix Frankfurter" as Associate Justice, 1¼p, 5¾x9. Supreme Court of the United States, Chambers of Justice Felix Frankfurter stationery but written fromNew Milford, Conn., 1941 September 2. To Mr. Lewis. Headed: "Private". In full: "If you can spare a dozen copies of yesterdays PM - The Great Fire of London - please send them to me to the above address (if they can get here by Saturday - otherwise send them to Washington) & I shall promptly send you a check to cover their cost. I congratulate you heartily on the enterprise that gave the American public those profoundly moving and eloquent and humbling photographs. Ralph I.'s appraisal of Russian morale is certainly being borne out. With all good wishes." 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. JOHN LEWISwas the editor of "PM" magazine. In 1941, a fire compared to the Great Fire of London destroyed two-thirds of the city due to hurricane-force winds. Lightly creased. "O.K" written in pencil in unknown hand (probably Lewis) at upper left corner. Fine condition.