Frankfurter, Felix

Born November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
Died February 22, 1965, in Washington, DC

Federal Judicial Service:
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Nominated by Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 5, 1939, to a seat vacated by Benjamin N. Cardozo. Confirmed by the Senate on January 17, 1939, and received commission on January 20, 1939. Assumed senior status on August 28, 1962. Service terminated on February 22, 1965, due to death.

Supreme Court Oath:
January 30, 1939

Allotment as Circuit Justice:

Seventh Circuit, February 6, 1939-April 23, 1939, June 24, 1957-October 13, 1958
First Circuit, April 24, 1939-August 28, 1962
Second Circuit, November 22, 1954-April 3, 1955, June 24, 1957-October 13, 1958
Sixth Circuit, June 19, 1958-September 1, 1958

Education:
City College of New York, B.A., 1902
Harvard Law School, LL.B., 1906

Professional Career:

Private practice, New York City, 1906
Assistant U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York, 1906-1909
Aide, Henry Stimson campaign for governor of New York, 1910
Law officer, Bureau of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of War, 1911-1914
Professor of law, Harvard Law School, 1914-1917, 1920-1939; Byrne professor of administrative law, 1924-1939
U.S. Army Reserves major, JAG Department, 1917-
Assistant to the Secretary of War, 1917-1918
Member, President's Commission on Mediation, 1917-1918
Chairman, War Labor Policies Board, 1917-1918

Bibliography

Ariens, Michael. “The Thrice-Told Tale, or Felix the Cat,” Harvard Law Review, vol. 107, no. 3 (Jan. 1994): 620-76.

Aynes, Richard L. “Charles Fairman, Felix Frankfurter, and the Fourteenth Amendment.” Chicago-Kent Law Review, vol. 70 (1995): 1197-274.

Baker, Leonard. Brandeis and Frankfurter: A Dual Biography. New York: New York University Press, 1986.

Baker, Liva. Felix Frankfurter. New York: Coward-McCann, 1969.

Berkowitz, Simcha. Felix Frankfurter’s Zionist Activities. DHL Diss., Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1971.

Coleman, William T., Jr. “Mr. Justice Frankfurter: Civil Libertarian as Lawyer and as Justice: Extent to which Judicial Responsibilities Affected his Pre-Court Convictions.” University of Illinois Law Forum, vol. 1978, no. 2 (1978): 279-300.

Cunningham, Robert T. “The Judicial Philosophy of Felix Frankfurter.” International Society of Barristers Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 4 (Oct. 1973): 5-22.

Dalin, David G. Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press, 2017.

Danzig, Richard. “How Questions Begot Answers in Felix Frankfurter’s First Flag Salute Opinion.” Supreme Court Review, vol. 1977 (1977): 257-74.

Dawson, Nelson Lloyd. Louis D. Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and the New Deal. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1980.

Domnarski, William. The Great Justices, 1941-54: Black, Douglas, Frankfurter, and Jackson in Chambers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Feldman, Noah. Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices. New York: Twelve, 2010.

Freund, Paul A. “Mr. Justice Frankfurter.” University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 26, no. 2 (Winter 1959): 205-16.

Gerber, Larry G. The Limits of Liberalism: Josephus Daniels, Henry Stimson, Bernard Baruch, Donald Richberg, Felix Frankfurter and the Development of the Modern Political Economy. New York: New York University Press, 1984.

Gilkey, Royal C. “Felix Frankfurter and the Oregon Maximum Hour Case.” University of Missouri at Kansas City Law Review, vol. 35, no. 1 (Winter 1967): 149-57.

________. “Felix Frankfurter’s Career as a Law Officer under Henry L. Stimson.” University of Missouri at Kansas City Law Review, vol. 33 (Winter 1965): 61-7.

________. “Felix Frankfurter’s Role as a Progressive in Politics and Liberal Disciple of Brandeis on the Labor Question.” University of Missouri at Kansas City Law Review, vol. 33, no. 2 (Summer 1965): 264-75.

________. “Felix Frankfurter’s Years of Preparation: From Immigrant Status to Service with Stimson.” University of Missouri at Kansas City Law Review, vol. 32 (Summer 1964): 322-29.

Graber, Mark A. “False Modesty: Felix Frankfurter and the Tradition of Judicial Restraint.” Washburn Law Journal, vol. 47, no. 1 (Fall 2007): 23-34.

Hirsch, H.N. The Enigma of Felix Frankfurter. New York: Basic Books, 1981.

Hockett, Jeffrey D. New Deal Justice: The Jurisprudence of Hugo L. Black, Felix Frankfurter, and Robert Jackson. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1996.

Hutchinson, Dennis J. “Felix Frankfurter and the Business of the Supreme Court, O.T. 1946 - O.T. 1961.” Supreme Court Review, vol. 1980 (1980): 143-210.

Jacobs, Clyde Edward. Justice Frankfurter and Civil Liberties. Berkley: University of California Press, 1961.

Jacobsohn, Gary J. “Felix Frankfurter and the Ambiguities of Judicial Statesmanship.” New York University Law Review, vol. 49, no. 1 (April 1974): 1-44.

Lash, Joseph P. From the Diaries of Felix Frankfurter: With a Biographical Essay and Notes. New York: Norton, 1980.

Levinson, Sanford V. “The Democratic Faith of Felix Frankfurter.” Stanford Law Review, vol. 25, no. 3 (Feb. 1973): 430-48.

MacLeish, Archibald. “Felix Frankfurter: A Lesson of Faith.” Supreme Court Review, vol. 1966 (1966): 1-6.

McManamon, Mary Brigid. “Felix Frankfurter: The Architect of ‘Our Federalism.’” Georgia Law Review, vol. 27, no. 3 (Spring 1993): 697-788.

Mendelson, Wallace. “Mr. Justice Frankfurter – Law and Choice.” Vanderbilt Law Review, vol. 10, no. 2 (Feb, 1957): 333-56.

________. Felix Frankfurter: A Tribute. New York: Reynal, 1964.

Murphy, Bruce Allen. The Brandeis/Frankfurter Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

________. “A Supreme Court Justice as Politician: Felix Frankfurter and Federal Court Appointments.” American Journal of Legal History, vol. 21, no. 4 (1977): 316-34.

Parrish, Michael E. Felix Frankfurter and His Times: The Reform Years. New York: Free Press, 1982.

Phillips, Harlan B. Felix Frankfurter Reminisces. New York: Reynal: 1960.

Rauh, Joseph L. Jr. “Felix Frankfurter: Civil Libertarian.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, vol. 11, no. 3 (Summer 1976): 496-520.

Rice, Daniel. “Felix Frankfurter and Reinhold Neibur: 1940-1968.” Journal of Law and Religion, vol. 1 (1983): 325-426.

Schwartz, Bernard. “Felix Frankfurter and Earl Warren: A Study of a Deteriorating Relationship.” Supreme Court Review, vol. 1980 (1980): 115-42.

Siegel, David M. “Felix Frankfurter, Charles Hamilton Houston and the N-Word: A Case Study in the Evolution of Judicial Attitudes towards Race.” Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, vol. 7, no. 2 (Fall 1999): 317-74.

Silverstein, Mark. Constitutional Faiths: Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, and the Process of Judicial Decision Making. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Snyder, Brad. Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2022.

Stevens, Richard G. Frankfurter and Due Process. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987.

Thomas, Helen Shirley. Felix Frankfurter: Scholar on the Bench. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1960.

Urofsky, Melvin I. “Conflict among the Brethren: Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas and the Clash of Personalities and Philosophies on the United States Supreme Court.” Duke Law Journal, vol. 71-113.

________. Felix Frankfurter: Judicial Restraint and Individual Liberties. Boston: Twayne, 1991.

________. “The Failure of Felix Frankfurter.” University of Richmond Law Review, vol. 26 (Fall 1991): 175-213.

White, G. Edward. “Felix Frankfurter, the Old Boy Network, and the New Deal: The Placement of Elite Lawyers in Public Service in the 1930s.” Arkansas Law Review, vol. 39, no. 4 (1986): 631-68.

Yaphe, Andrew. “Reputation, Reputation: Fred Rodell, Felix Frankfurter, and the Reproduction of Hierarchy in the Unlikeliest of Places.” Journal of the Legal Profession, vol. 36, no. 2 (Spring 2012): 441-86.

Manuscript Collections

American Jewish Archives
Cincinnati, Ohio
Felix Frankfurter correspondence file, 1930-1964.
1 folder; correspondence with Benjamin F. Goldstein.

Felix Frankfurter papers, 1885-1965.
5 microfilm reels; correspondence and printed material on Zionism, anti-Semitism, and Frankfurter's activities as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

American Jewish Historical Society
Waltham, Mass.
Felix Frankfurter papers and articles, 1916-1958.
11 items; collection contains 5 personal letters, articles on Cardozo and Brandeis, and miscellaneous papers.

Harvard Law School
Cambridge, Mass.
Felix Frankfurter letters to his sister Estelle, 1933-1964.
6 boxes; finding aid.

Felix Frankfurter papers, 1900-1965.
115 linear ft. (ca. 45,000 items); finding aid; restricted; correspondence, opinions, memoranda, addresses, speeches, articles, dockets, clippings, and other material.

Felix Frankfurter papers relating to Oxford University law students, 1933.
5 items; includes Frankfurter's typewritten outlines and notes for lectures given as a visting professor at Oxford.

Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Felix Frankfurter papers, 1846-1966.
106.4 linear ft. (70,625 items); finding aid; correspondence, memoranda, diaries, speeches, articles, books, newspaper clippings, and printed matter related to Frankfurter's tenure as professor at Harvard Law School and as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Hyde Park, N.Y.
Felix Frankfurter papers, 1921-1949.
1.5 cubic ft.; finding aid; consists primarily of correspondence between Frankfurter and Roosevelt.

Syracuse University
Syracuse, N.Y.
Felix Frankfurter letters, 1927-1934.
1 vol.; letters from Frankfurter to Norman Hapgood and between Frankfurter and Joseph M. Proskauer.

Oral History

Frankfurter, Felix. "Felix Frankfurter." Interviews conducted on June 10 and 19, 1964, by Charles McLaughlin. John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts, 1964. Transcript, 75 pages.

Frankfurter, Felix. "Conversations with Mr. Justice Frankfurter." Interviews conducted between 1953 and 1955 by Harlan B. Phillips. Oral History Research Office, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York, 1956. Transcript, 337 pages.

Federal Judicial Center

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Frankfurter, Felix