ASSOCIATE JUSTICE FELIX FRANKFURTER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 10/22/1960 - HFSID 262806

FELIX FRANKFURTER
He pens this autograph letter regarding his friend Aaron Aaronsohn
Autograph Letter Signed: "Felix Frankfurter" as Associate Justice, 5¾x3¾ card. Supreme Court, Washington, 1960 October 22. To Professor Fein. In full: "Deeming Aaron Aaronsohn one of the most creative minds I ever encountered and deeply cherishing his memory as a dear friend, I am, of course, moved by what you bring to me of him, and grateful to you for it. Let me add that I warmly appreciate your kind words." On top, upside-down, he adds: "P.S. Please let me see a copy of your paper on Aaron when it becomes available." In 1915, AARON AARONSOHN (1876-1919) helped organize Nili, a secret intelligence group with the aim of assisting the British forces under General Edmund H.H. Allenby to conquer Palestine thus helping to realize Zionist aspirations. Moving to Cairo, he helped British headquarters there in planning the campaign for the Palestine invasion. 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. Lightly creased and soiled. Erased pencil notes.