FELIX FRANKFURTER. Typescript signed: "Felix Frankfurter/Janry 12, 1940." as Associate Justice, 1p, 6x8. The complete text of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Imprinted photograph of Lincoln, b/w, 1x1½, beneath text. A great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter (1882-1962) signed this copy of the Gettysburg Address on January 12, 1940, less than one year after he took his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. On the day of his swearing in (January 30, 1939), Frankfurter wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, declaring "I am given the opportunity for service to the Nation, which, in any circumstances would be owing, but which I would rather have at your hands than at those of any other President barring Lincoln." Frankfurter often compared his contemporaries to the great Civil War President, finding them equal to (or many times lacking in) Lincoln's humor, patience, magnanimity and humility. Unlike Lincoln, who served as an attorney with several law practices, Frankfurter was a renowned constitutional law scholar who molded young legal minds during his 25 years as a Harvard professor. He achieved national recognition for his liberal work as an advisor to the NAACP and a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. Frankfurter had received his appointment to the Court after counseling FDR on New Deal legislation. As an Associate Justice (1939-1962), Frankfurter played a pivotal role in the famous school desegregation case, Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954), ensuring its historic importance by securing a unanimous decision. However, his strides as a judicial reformer were always balanced against his belief that society's ills must be corrected through legislative means. Thus, Frankfurter dissented when the Court ruled in favor of legislative reapportionment (Baker vs. Carr, 1962), which he felt was a strictly political problem. The staunch advocate of judicial self-restraint influenced Supreme Court decisions for more than 20 years, stabilized the liberal Earl Warren Court and promoted "procedural fairness" in criminal cases. President John F. Kennedy presented Frankfurter with the Medal of Freedom in 1963. Lightly creased with folds, horizontal fold underlines date. Fine condition. Framed in the Gallery of History style: 29½x18¼.