ASSOCIATE JUSTICE FELIX FRANKFURTER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 11/23/1948 - HFSID 101283

FELIX FRANKFURTER
Felix Frankfurter sends a typed letter discussing a letter that was sent to him.
Typed Letter Signed: "Felix Frankfurter" as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 1p, 8x10½. Washington, 1948 November 23. On his Supreme Court stationery to Miss Catharine Peare. In full: "Will you permit me to say that your letter is a further manifestation of the wise conscientiousness as well as the truly liberal spirit which your talk conveyed when I had the pleasure of seeing you. As to the outcome of your venture, needless to say, I am not too surprised and I am happy that you so unresistingly acquiesce. I am tempted to add that evidently Mr. Evan Thomas and I interpret history very differently - at least the history regarding 'Jews in the Roosevelt administration'." 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.He was the third Jew on the court (Brandeis and Cardozo were the others). Creased at blank margins. Overall, fine condition.