ASSOCIATE JUSTICE FELIX FRANKFURTER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 11/18/1945 - HFSID 156858

FELIX FRANKFURTER
He pens this autograph letter of thanks dated in 1945
Autograph Letter Signed: "Felix Frankfurter" as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 2p, 4¼x3¼ Supreme Court card, front and verso. Washington, D.C., 1945 November 18. To Gustav Wertheimer, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In full: "Your good wishes touch my heart, and the story you tell of the merciful salvation of your brother and his wife gave me new respect for the intrepid qualities of the human spirit. Such courage and devotion give one strength for one's own journey on the stony road of life. With all good wishes." Fine condition. With original postmarked Supreme Court envelope addressed by Frankfurter. Lightly creased. Soiled at  upper margin and upper left edge, lightly soiled at lower blank area. Neatly opened at top. Overall, fine condition. GUSTAV WERTHEIMER (1894-1985), a prominent Wisconsin attorney, had evidently sent birthday wishes to Frankfurter, who had celebrated his 63rd birthday on November 15th. 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.