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84-639: Justice Black may refer to: Hugo Lafayette Black (1886–1971), associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971 Charles C. Black (1858–1947), associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court Eugene F. Black (1903–1990), associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court Francis Marion Black (1836–1902), associate justice of

168-454: A " textualist " and as a " strict constructionist ". While the text of the Constitution was an absolute limitation on the authority of judges in constitutional matters, within the confines of the text judges had a broad and unqualified mandate to enforce constitutional provisions, regardless of current public sentiment, or the feelings of the justices themselves. Thus, Black refused to join in

252-528: A Bill of Rights like ours survives and its basic purposes are conscientiously interpreted, enforced, and respected   ... I would follow what I believe was the original intention of the Fourteenth Amendment—to extend to all the people the complete protection of the Bill of Rights. To hold that this Court can determine what, if any, provisions of the Bill of Rights will be enforced, and if so to what degree,

336-430: A Maddox victory though he had trailed Callaway by some three thousand votes in the general election returns. Douglas also saw the issue as a continuation of the earlier decision Gray v. Sanders , which had struck down Georgia's County Unit System , a kind of electoral college formerly used to choose the governor. Black argued that the U.S. Constitution does not dictate how a state must choose its governor. "Our business

420-521: A Senate committee's investigation of lobbying practices. He publicly denounced the "highpowered, deceptive, telegram-fixing, letterframing, Washington-visiting" lobbyists, and advocated legislation requiring them to publicly register their names and salaries. In 1935, during the Great Depression , Black became chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, a position he would hold for

504-414: A clerk later asked how Black could justify this, he replied: 'A wise judge chooses, among plausible constitutional philosophies, one that will generally allow him to reach results he can believe in—a judge who does not to some extent tailor his judicial philosophy to his beliefs inevitably becomes badly frustrated and angry.   ... A judge who does not decide some cases, from time to time, differently from

588-616: A devoted New Dealer , Black endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections. Before he became a senator, Black espoused anti-Catholic views and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. An article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that he temporarily resigned from the Klan in 1925 to bolster his senatorial campaign, before quietly rejoining

672-408: A few months by the retirement of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes , also nearly 80. On June 12, 1941, Roosevelt nominated Associate Justice Harlan F. Stone to be chief justice. That same day, Roosevelt also nominated James F. Byrnes , and Robert H. Jackson to the court, with Byrnes to succeed McReynolds and Jackson to fill the associate justice seat to be vacated by the elevation of Stone. Byrnes

756-452: A hostile Supreme Court in his favor by adding more associate justices. Soon after this setback, however, Roosevelt obtained his first opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice when conservative Van Devanter retired. Roosevelt wanted the replacement to be a "thumping, evangelical New Dealer" who was reasonably young, confirmable by the Senate, and from a region of the country unrepresented on

840-606: A keener sense of the limitations that go with them." Conservative Judge Robert Bork wrote, "Justice Black came to have significantly more respect for the limits of the Constitution than Justice Douglas and the other leading members of the Warren majorities ever showed." One scholar wrote, "No Justice of the Court conscientiously and persistently endeavored, as much as Justice Black did, to establish consistent standards of objectivity for adjudicating constitutional questions." Black advocated

924-536: A narrow interpretation of federal power. Many New Deal laws that would have been struck down under earlier precedents were thus upheld. In 1939 Black was joined on the Supreme Court by Felix Frankfurter and William O. Douglas . Douglas voted alongside Black in several cases, especially those involving the First Amendment , while Frankfurter soon became one of Black's ideological foes. From 1945 until 1971, Black

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1008-436: A narrow role of interpretation for justices, opposing a view of justices as social engineers or rewriters of the Constitution. Black opposed enlarging constitutional liberties beyond their literal or historic "plain" meaning, as he saw his more liberal colleagues do. However, he also condemned the actions of those to his right, such as the conservative Four Horsemen of the 1920s and 1930s, who unsuccessfully attempted to overturn

1092-583: A national minimum wage and a maximum workweek of thirty hours. Although the bill was initially rejected in the House of Representatives, an amended version of it, which extended Black's original maximum workweek proposal to forty-four hours, was passed in 1938 (after Black left the Senate), becoming known as the Fair Labor Standards Act . Black was an ardent supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and

1176-468: A person's body, in this case a blood sample taken while the suspect was unconscious. Black held an expansive view of legislative power, whether that be state or federal, and would often vote against judicial review of state laws that could be struck down under the Commerce Clause. Previously, during the 1920s and 1930s, the court had interpreted the commerce clause narrowly, often striking down laws on

1260-504: A prominent champion of civil liberties and civil rights. Alabama governor Bibb Graves appointed his own wife, Dixie B. Graves , to fill Black's vacated Senate seat. On Black's first day on the bench, three lawyers contested Black's appointment on the basis of the Ineligibility Clause . The court dismissed this concern in the same year in Ex parte Levitt . As soon as Black started on

1344-606: A reputation as a tenacious investigator. In 1934, he chaired the committee that looked into the contracts awarded to air mail carriers under Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown , an inquiry which led to the Air Mail scandal . To correct what he termed abuses of "fraud and collusion" resulting from the Air Mail Act of 1930, he introduced the Black–McKellar Bill, later the Air Mail Act of 1934. The following year he participated in

1428-417: A reputation in the Senate as a reformer, Black was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Roosevelt and confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 63 to 16 (six Democratic Senators and 10 Republican Senators voted against him). He was the first of nine Roosevelt appointees to the court , and he outlasted all except for William O. Douglas . The fifth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history , Black

1512-463: A right of privacy was implicit in the Ninth or Fourteenth amendments, and dissented from the court's 1965 Griswold decision which invalidated a conviction for the use of contraceptives . Black said "It belittles that [Fourth] Amendment to talk about it as though it protects nothing but 'privacy'   ... 'privacy' is a broad, abstract, and ambiguous concept   ... The constitutional right of privacy

1596-547: A senator nominated for an executive or judicial office was confirmed immediately and without debate. However, on this occasion, the nomination was referred to the Judiciary Committee . Black was criticized for his presumed bigotry, his cultural roots, and his Klan membership, when that became public. But Black was a close friend of Walter Francis White , the black executive secretary of the NAACP , who helped assuage critics of

1680-490: A single Supreme Court vacancy, and the court, led by the "Four Horsemen" of Willis Van Devanter , James Clark McReynolds , George Sutherland and Pierce Butler , struck down many of his New Deal programs. One of Roosevelt's most severe political defeats during his presidency was the failure of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 , popularly known as the court-packing bill, which sought to stack

1764-711: Is among the most distinctive of any members of the Supreme Court in history and has been influential on justices as diverse as Earl Warren , and Antonin Scalia. Black's jurisprudence had three essential components: history, literalism, and absolutism. Black's love of history was rooted in a lifelong love of books, which led him to the belief that historical study was necessary for one to prevent repeating society's past mistakes. Black wrote in 1968 that "power corrupts, and unrestricted power will tempt Supreme Court justices just as history tells us it has tempted other judges." Second, Black's commitment to literalism involved using

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1848-470: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Hugo Black Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party and

1932-428: Is not found in the Constitution." Justice Black rejected reliance on what he called the "mysterious and uncertain" concept of natural law . According to Black that theory was vague and arbitrary, and merely allowed judges to impose their personal views on the nation. Instead, he argued that courts should limit themselves to a strict analysis of the actual text of the Constitution. Black was, in addition, an opponent of

2016-435: Is not to write laws to fit the day. Our task is to interpret the Constitution", Black explained. Black was noted for his advocacy of a textualist approach to constitutional interpretation. He took a "literal" or absolutist reading of the provisions of the Bill of Rights and believed that the text of the Constitution is absolutely determinative on any question calling for judicial interpretation, leading to his reputation as

2100-664: Is to frustrate the great design of a written Constitution. In a 1968 public interview, reflecting on his most important contributions, Black put his dissent from Adamson "at the top of the list, but then spoke with great eloquence from one of his earliest opinions in Chambers v. Florida (1940). Black intensely believed in judicial restraint and reserved the power of making laws to the legislatures, often scolding his more liberal colleagues for what he saw as judicially created legislation. Conservative justice John M. Harlan II would say of Black: "No Justice has worn his judicial robes with

2184-575: The 81st Field Artillery , and attained the rank of captain as the regimental adjutant. When the regiment departed for France, its commander was ordered to return to Fort Sill to organize and train another regiment, and he requested Black as his adjutant. The war ended before Black's new unit departed the United States, and he returned to law practice. He joined the Birmingham Civitan Club during this time, eventually serving as president of

2268-569: The New Deal . In particular, he was an outspoken advocate of the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 , popularly known as the court-packing bill, FDR's unsuccessful plan to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court. Throughout his career as a senator, Black gave speeches based on his belief in the ultimate power of the Constitution. He came to see the actions of the anti-New Deal Supreme Court as judicial excess; in his view,

2352-509: The Securities and Exchange Commission to close down the country's corrupt electric holding companies. Black gave a dramatic speech on this four-decade-long political battle. Critics of Black's lobbying committee in leading newspapers, such as the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune , described his investigative methods as both "inquisitorial" and "terroristic" and charged that his goal

2436-658: The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (later renamed the District Court of D.C.) granted an injunction prohibiting the committee from any further examination of more telegrams on the grounds that they secured though against unreasonable search and seizure: "This subpoena goes way beyond any legitimate exercise of the right of subpoena duces tecum." In 1937 he sponsored the Black–Connery Bill, which sought to establish

2520-568: The United States Senate from Alabama, following the retirement of Senator Oscar Underwood . Since the Democratic Party had dominated Alabama politics since disenfranchising most blacks (and Republicans) at the turn of the century, Black easily defeated his Republican opponent, E. H. Dryer , winning 80.9% of the white vote. He was reelected in 1932, winning 86.3% of the vote against Republican J. Theodore Johnson . Senator Black gained

2604-500: The " Living Constitution " theory. In his dissent to Griswold (1965), he wrote: I realize that many good and able men have eloquently spoken and written, sometimes in rhapsodical strains, about the duty of this Court to keep the Constitution in tune with the times. The idea is that the Constitution must be changed from time to time, and that this Court is charged with a duty to make those changes. For myself, I must, with all deference, reject that philosophy. The Constitution makers knew

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2688-584: The "limited grounds" that each Justice was entitled to determine for himself the propriety of recusal. At first the case attracted little public comment. However, after Chief Justice Harlan Stone died in 1946, rumors that President Harry S. Truman would appoint Jackson as Stone's successor led several newspapers to investigate and report the Jewell Ridge controversy. Black and Douglas allegedly leaked to newspapers that they would resign if Jackson were appointed Chief. Truman ultimately chose Fred M. Vinson for

2772-648: The 1960s, Black clashed with Fortas, who by that time had been appointed as an associate justice. In 1968, a Warren clerk called their feud "one of the most basic animosities of the Court". Vinson's tenure as chief justice coincided with the Second Red Scare , a period of intense anti-communism in the United States. In several cases the Supreme Court considered, and upheld, the validity of anticommunist laws passed during this era. For example, in American Communications Association v. Douds (1950),

2856-429: The Bill of Rights to be an outworn 18th century 'strait jacket'   ... Its provisions may be thought outdated abstractions by some. And it is true that they were designed to meet ancient evils. But they are the same kind of human evils that have emerged from century to century wherever excessive power is sought by the few at the expense of the many. In my judgment the people of no nation can lose their liberty so long as

2940-411: The Constitution protected a right to privacy . In not finding such a right implicit in the Constitution, Black wrote in his dissent that "Many good and able men have eloquently spoken and written   ... about the duty of this Court to keep the Constitution in tune with the times.   ... For myself, I must with all deference reject that philosophy." Black's most prominent ideological opponent on

3024-592: The Government of the United States". The law was often used to prosecute individuals for joining the Communist Party. Black again dissented, writing: Public opinion being what it now is, few will protest the conviction of these Communist petitioners. There is hope, however, that, in calmer times, when present pressures, passions and fears subside, this or some later Court will restore the First Amendment liberties to

3108-564: The Klan in 1926. In 1937, upon being appointed to the Supreme Court, Black said: "Before becoming a Senator I dropped the Klan. I have had nothing to do with it since that time. I abandoned it. I completely discontinued any association with the organization." Black served as the secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference and the chair of the Senate Education Committee during his decade in the Senate. Having gained

3192-685: The New Deal's legislation. Black forged the 5–4 majority in the 1967 decision Fortson v. Morris , which cleared the path for the Georgia State Legislature to choose the governor in the deadlocked 1966 race between Democrat Lester Maddox and Republican Howard Callaway . Whereas Black voted with the majority under strict construction to uphold the state constitutional provision, his colleagues Douglas (joined by Warren, Brennan, and Fortas) and Fortas (joined by Warren and Douglas) dissented. According to Douglas, Georgia tradition would guarantee

3276-469: The Supreme Court about the importance of acting within the limits of the Constitution. Third, Black's absolutism led him to enforce the rights of the Constitution, rather than attempting to define a meaning, scope, or extent to each right. Black expressed his view on the Bill of Rights in his opinion in Adamson v. California (1947), which he saw as his "most significant opinion written": I cannot consider

3360-573: The Supreme Court of Missouri Jeremiah S. Black (1810–1883), chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1851 to 1854 Jill Black, Lady Black of Derwent (born 1954), justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom John Black (Mississippi politician) (1800–1854), associate justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court See also [ edit ] Judge Black (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

3444-450: The UMW; Black voted with the majority, while Jackson dissented. However, the coal company requested the court rehear the case on the grounds that Justice Black should have recused himself, as the mine workers were represented by Black's law partner of 20 years earlier. Under the Supreme Court's rules, each Justice was entitled to determine the propriety of disqualifying himself. Jackson agreed that

Justice Black - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-746: The Warren Court was John Marshall Harlan II , who replaced Justice Jackson in 1955. They disagreed on several issues, including the applicability of the Bill of Rights to the states, the scope of the due process clause, and the one man, one vote principle. Black had a number of law clerks who became notable in their own right , including Judges Louis F. Oberdorfer , Truman McGill Hobbs , Guido Calabresi , and Drayton Nabers Jr. , Professors John K. McNulty , Stephen Schulhofer , and Walter E. Dellinger III , Mayor David Vann , FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson , US solicitor general Lawrence G. Wallace , and trial lawyer Stephen Susman . Black's jurisprudence

3612-522: The appointment. Chambers v. Florida (1940), an early case where Black ruled in favor of African-American criminal defendants who experienced due process violations, later helped put these concerns to rest. The Judiciary Committee recommended Black for confirmation by a vote of 13–4 on August 16, and the full Senate took up the nomination the next day. Rumors of Black's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan surfaced, and two Democratic senators tried defeating

3696-639: The case. When Lane was elected to the Birmingham City Commission in 1911, he asked Black to serve as a police court judge – his only judicial experience prior to the Supreme Court. In 1912, Black resigned to return to practicing law full time. In 1914, he began a four-year term as the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney . During World War I , Black resigned to join the United States Army . He served in

3780-591: The court upheld a law that required labor union officials to forswear membership in the Communist Party . Black dissented, claiming that the law violated the First Amendment 's free speech clause. Similarly, in Dennis v. United States , 341 U.S. 494 (1951), the court upheld the Smith Act , which made it a crime to "advocate, abet, advise, or teach the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing

3864-564: The court was improperly overturning legislation that had been passed by large majorities in Congress. During his Senate career, Black consistently opposed the passage of anti- lynching legislation, as did all of the white Democrats of the Solid South . In 1935 Black led a filibuster of the Wagner-Costigan anti-lynching bill. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that when a motion to end

3948-489: The court, he advocated judicial restraint and worked to move the court away from interposing itself in social and economic matters. Black vigorously defended the "plain meaning" of the Constitution, rooted in the ideas of its era, and emphasized the supremacy of the legislature; for Black, the role of the Supreme Court was limited and constitutionally prescribed. During his early years on the Supreme Court, Black helped reverse several earlier court decisions that were based on

4032-550: The court-packing plan. Roosevelt admired Black's use of the investigative role of the Senate to shape the American mind on reforms, his strong voting record, and his early support, which dated back to 1933. On August 12, 1937, Roosevelt nominated Black to fill the vacancy. For the first time since 1853, the Senate departed from its tradition, which had been to confirm the appointment of a sitting senator without debate. Instead, it referred

4116-454: The court. The three final candidates were Solicitor General Stanley Forman Reed , Indiana Senator Sherman Minton , and Alabama Senator Hugo Black . Roosevelt said Reed "had no fire", and Minton didn't want the appointment at the time. Black was a candidate from the South who as a senator had voted for all twenty-four of Roosevelt's major New Deal programs, and had been an outspoken advocate of

4200-454: The efforts of the justices on the court who sought to abolish capital punishment in the United States, whose efforts succeeded (temporarily) in the term immediately following Black's death. He claimed that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment 's reference to takings of "life", and to "capital" crimes, meant approval of the death penalty was implicit in the Bill of Rights. He also was not persuaded that

4284-417: The filibuster was defeated, "[t]he southerners—headed by Tom Connally of Texas and Hugo Black of Alabama—grinned at each other and shook hands." Soon after the failure of the court-packing plan, President Roosevelt obtained his first opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice when conservative Willis Van Devanter retired. Roosevelt wanted the replacement to be a "thumping, evangelical New Dealer" who

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4368-485: The freedom of business owners), and believed that there was no basis in the words of the Constitution for a right to privacy , voting against finding one in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). He also took conservative positions in cases such as Shapiro v. Thompson , Goldberg v. Kelly , Tinker v. Des Moines , and Cohen v. California where he distinguished between " pure speech " and " expressive conduct ". Black

4452-713: The grounds that Congress had overstepped its authority. After 1937, however, the Supreme Court overturned several precedents and affirmed a broader interpretation of the Commerce Clause. Black consistently voted with the majority in these decisions; for example, he joined Mulford v. Smith , 307 U.S. 38 (1939), United States v. Darby Lumber Co. , 312 U.S. 100 (1941), Wickard v. Filburn , 317 U.S. 111 (1942), Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States , 379 U.S. 241 (1964), and Katzenbach v. McClung , 379 U.S. 294 (1964). Franklin D. Roosevelt Supreme Court candidates During his first term, Roosevelt did not fill

4536-565: The group. He remained an active member throughout his life, occasionally contributing articles to Civitan publications. In the early 1920s, Black became a member of the Robert E. Lee Klan No. 1 in Birmingham, and he resigned in 1925. In 1937, after his confirmation to the Supreme Court, it was reported he had been given a "grand passport" in 1926, granting him life membership to the Ku Klux Klan . In response to this news, Black said he had never used

4620-403: The haste in resigning was to avoid fallout from his Klan membership potentially going public. On January 5, 1938, 75-year-old Associate Justice George Sutherland announced he would retire from the Supreme Court as of January 18. On January 15, 1938, Roosevelt nominated Solicitor General Stanley F. Reed , who had been considered for the previous vacancy. Many in the nation's capital worried about

4704-587: The high preferred place where they belong in a free society. Beginning in the late 1940s, Black wrote decisions relating to the Establishment Clause, where he insisted on the strict separation of church and state . The most notable of these was Engel v. Vitale (1962), which declared state-sanctioned prayer in public schools unconstitutional. This provoked considerable opposition, especially in conservative circles. Efforts to restore school prayer by constitutional amendment failed. In 1953 Vinson died and

4788-406: The investigative role of the Senate to shape the American mind on reforms, his strong voting record, and his early support, which dated back to 1933. Both Reed and Minton were later appointed to the Supreme Court; Reed was the next Justice appointed by Roosevelt, while Minton was appointed by Harry Truman in 1949. On August 12, 1937, Roosevelt nominated Black to fill the vacancy. By tradition,

4872-472: The last hundred years". Black insisted that judges rely on the intent of the Framers as well as the "plain meaning" of the Constitution's words and phrases (drawing on the history of the period) when deciding a case. Black additionally called for judicial restraint not usually seen in court decision-making. The justices of the court would validate the supremacy of the legislature in public policy-making, unless

4956-530: The legislature was denying people constitutional freedoms. Black stated that the legislature "was fully clothed with the power to govern and to maintain order". One of Black's biographers commented: Black's support of Bolling seemingly violated his own principles: the Fifth Amendment does not contain, nor can it be read to incorporate, the Fourteenth Amendment 's equal protection clause . When

5040-546: The majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States (1944), which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans ordered by the president Franklin Roosevelt . During the mid-1960s, Black became slightly more conservative. Black opposed the doctrine of substantive due process (the pre-1937 Supreme Court's interpretation of this concept made it impossible for the government to enact legislation that conservatives claimed interfered with

5124-433: The need for change, and provided for it. Amendments suggested by the people's elected representatives can be submitted to the people or their selected agents for ratification. That method of change was good for our Fathers, and, being somewhat old-fashioned, I must add it is good enough for me. Thus, some have seen Black as an originalist . David Strauss, for example, hails him as "[t]he most influential originalist judge of

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5208-412: The next vacancy on the court. Butler was a Catholic, and held a seat traditionally filled by a Catholic justice. On January 4, 1940, Roosevelt maintained the tradition of a Catholic seat when he nominated Frank Murphy . Murphy was confirmed by the Senate on January 16, 1940, by voice vote. On January 31, 1941, James Clark McReynolds , soon to be 80 years old, stepped down from the court, followed within

5292-618: The nomination fight, in light of the difficulty encountered by Hugo Black. However, Reed's nomination was swift and generated little debate in the Senate. He was confirmed on January 25, 1938, by voice vote , and seated as an associate justice on January 31. As of 2022 , Reed is the most recent person to serve as a Supreme Court justice without possessing a law degree . Following the death of Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo in July 1938, President Roosevelt asked his old friend Felix Frankfurter for recommendations of prospective candidates for

5376-425: The nomination to the Judiciary Committee . Black was criticized by other senators and Newsweek for his bigotry, his cultural roots, and later when it became public, his Ku Klux Klan membership, but the committee recommended Black's confirmation by a vote of 13–4 on August 16. The next day, the full Senate considered Black's nomination. Rumors relating to Black's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan surfaced among

5460-519: The nomination; no conclusive evidence was presented tying Black to the klan. After rejecting 15–66 a motion to recommit the nomination to the Judiciary Committee for further review, the Senate voted 63–16 to confirm on August 17, 1937; ten Republicans and six Democrats voted against. He was sworn into office on August 19, 1937. Shortly after, Black's KKK membership became known and there was widespread outrage; nonetheless Black went on to become

5544-526: The passport and had not kept it. He further stated that when he resigned he completely discontinued his Klan association, that he had never resumed it, and that he expected never to resume his membership. On February 23, 1921, he married Josephine Foster (1899–1951), with whom he had three children: Hugo L. Black, II (1922–2013), an attorney; Sterling Foster (1924–1996), and Martha Josephine (1933–2019). Josephine died in 1951; in 1957, Black married Elizabeth Seay DeMeritte. In 1926, Black sought election to

5628-401: The petition for rehearing should be denied, but refused to give approval to Black's participation in the case. Ultimately, when the court unanimously denied the petition for rehearing, Justice Jackson released a short statement, in which Justice Frankfurter joined. The concurrence indicated that Jackson voted to deny the petition not because he approved of Black's participation in the case, but on

5712-472: The position. In 1948, Justice Black approved an order solicited by Abe Fortas that barred a federal district court in Texas from further investigation of significant voter fraud and irregularities in the 1948 Democratic primary election runoff for United States Senator from Texas . The order effectively confirmed future president Lyndon Johnson 's apparent victory over former Texas governor Coke Stevenson . In

5796-566: The remainder of his Senate career. On August 8, 1935, Black, who was chairman of the senate committee investigating lobbying activities, went on NBC's National Radio Forum . The national audience was shocked to hear Black speak of a $ 5   million electric industry lobbying campaign attempt to defeat the Wheeler–Rayburn bill, known as the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 that had passed in July. The act directed

5880-466: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Justice Black . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Justice_Black&oldid=1224387528 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Title and name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

5964-454: The senators, and Democratic Senators Royal S. Copeland and Edward R. Burke urged the Senate to defeat the nomination. However, no conclusive evidence of Black's involvement was available at the time, so after six hours of debate, the Senate voted 63–16 to confirm Black; ten Republicans and six Democrats voted against Black. He resigned from the Senate and was sworn in as an associate justice two days later; Black would later explain that

6048-486: The vacancy. Finding none on the list to suit his criteria, Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter himself on January 5, 1939. Frankfurter was confirmed by the Senate on January 17, 1939, by voice vote. In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the Supreme Court, and Roosevelt nominated Douglas as his replacement on March 20, 1939. Douglas later revealed that this had been a great surprise to him—Roosevelt had summoned him to an "important meeting", and Douglas feared that he

6132-473: The way he would wish, because the philosophy he has adopted requires it, is not a judge. But a judge who refuses ever to stray from his judicial philosophy, and be subject to criticism for doing so, no matter how important the issue involved, is a fool.' Black also joined Douglas's dissent in Breithaupt v. Abram which argued that substantive due process prevented police from making an involuntary intrusion into

6216-465: The words of the Constitution to restrict the roles of the judiciary—Black would have justices validate the supremacy of the country's legislature, unless the legislature itself was denying people their freedoms. Black wrote: "The Constitution is not deathless; it provides for changing or repealing by the amending process, not by judges but by the people and their chosen representatives." Black would often lecture his colleagues, liberal or conservative, on

6300-455: Was admitted to the bar , and began to practice in Ashland. In 1907, Black moved to the growing city of Birmingham, where he built a successful practice that specialized in labor law and personal injury cases. As a consequence of his defense of an African American who was forced into a form of commercial slavery after incarceration, Black was befriended by A. O. Lane, a judge connected with

6384-526: Was born in Harlan, Clay County, Alabama, on February 27, 1886, the youngest of eight children born to William Lafayette Black and Martha (Toland) Black. In 1890 the family moved to Ashland , the county seat. The family came from a Baptist background. Black attended Ashland College, an academy located in Ashland, then enrolled at the University of Alabama School of Law . He graduated in 1906 with an LL.B. degree,

6468-403: Was confirmed by the Senate on the same day by voice vote. Stone was confirmed on June 27, 1941, and Jackson on July 7, 1941, both also by voice vote. Byrnes only served on the court for a year and a half, resigning at Roosevelt's behest to head the powerful Office of Economic Stabilization . On January 11, 1943, Roosevelt nominated Wiley Rutledge to fill the vacancy. Rutledge was confirmed by

6552-686: Was one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century. He is noted for using historical evidence to support textualist arguments, his position that the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights were imposed on the states ("incorporated") by the Fourteenth Amendment , and his absolutist stance on the First Amendment , often declaring "No law [abridging the freedom of speech] means no law." Black expanded individual rights in his opinions in cases such as Gideon v. Wainwright , Engel v. Vitale , and Wesberry v. Sanders . Black's views were not uniformly liberal. During World War II , he wrote

6636-477: Was reasonably young, confirmable by the Senate, and from a region of the country unrepresented on the court. The three final candidates were Solicitor General Stanley Reed , Sherman Minton , and Hugo Black. Roosevelt said Reed "had no fire", and Minton did not want the appointment at the time. The position would go to Black, a candidate from the South, who, as a senator, had voted for all 24 of Roosevelt's major New Deal programs. Roosevelt admired Black's use of

6720-450: Was replaced by Earl Warren . While all members of the court were New Deal liberals, Black was part of the most liberal wing of the court, together with Warren, Douglas, William Brennan , and Arthur Goldberg . They said the court had a role beyond that of Congress. Yet while he often voted with them on the Warren Court, he occasionally took his own line on some key cases, most notably Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which established that

6804-423: Was the senior associate justice of the Supreme Court. As of 2023, Black is the most recent sitting Supreme Court justice to have received his legal education from a public law school . In the mid-1940s, Justice Black became involved in a bitter dispute with Justice Robert H. Jackson as a result of Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. v. Local 6167, United Mine Workers (1945) . In this case the court ruled 5–4 in favor of

6888-508: Was to be named as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission . Douglas was Brandeis' personal choice as his successor. He was confirmed by the Senate on April 4 by a vote of 62 to 4. The four negative votes were cast by four Republicans: Lynn J. Frazier , Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. , Gerald P. Nye , and Clyde M. Reed . Douglas was sworn into office on April 17, 1939. Justice Pierce Butler died in 1939, creating

6972-424: Was to intimidate and silence anti-New Dealers. Most controversially, Black, with the full backing of the Roosevelt administration, to get FCC to order Western Union and other telegraph companies to provide access to copies to several million telegrams sent during the period of February 1 to September 1, 1935. Committee and FCC staffers examined the telegrams at the rate of several thousand per day. The committee's goal

7056-429: Was to uncover content that had bearing on lobbying, which it defined very broadly to include just about any political commentary. People who had their private telegrams examined included every member of Congress as well as leaders of anti-New Deal organizations. When Black's investigation of these telegrams became public knowledge, there was a major outcry in the press. On March 11, 1936, Chief Justice Alfred A. Wheat of

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