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Hugo Black

March 02, 2023

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 a devoted New Dealer,[3] Black endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections.[4] Before he became a Senator, Black espoused anti-Catholic views and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, from which he resigned in 1925.[5] 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."[6] 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 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,[7] and he outlasted all except for William O. Douglas.[8]

Hugo Black
Black photographed by Harris & Ewing, 1937
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
August 19, 1937 – September 17, 1971[1]
Nominated byFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byWillis Van Devanter
Succeeded byLewis F. Powell Jr.
Chair of the Senate Education Committee
In office
January 3, 1937 – August 19, 1937
Preceded byDavid Walsh
Succeeded byElbert Thomas
Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference
In office
1927–1937
LeaderJoseph Taylor Robinson
Preceded byWilliam H. King
Succeeded byJoshua B. Lee
United States Senator
from Alabama
In office
March 4, 1927 – August 19, 1937
Preceded byOscar Underwood
Succeeded byDixie Graves
Personal details
Born
Hugo Lafayette Black

(1886-02-27)February 27, 1886
Harlan, Alabama, U.S.
DiedSeptember 25, 1971(1971-09-25) (aged 85)
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Resting placeArlington National Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Josephine Foster
​
​
(m. 1921; died 1951)​

Elizabeth DeMeritte
​
(m. 1957)​
Children3, including Hugo and Sterling
EducationUniversity of Alabama (LLB)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army
Years of service1917–1919
Rank Captain
Unit81st Field Artillery Regiment
Battles/warsWorld War I
[2]

The fifth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history, Black was one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century. For much of his career, Black was considered strongly liberal.[9] He is noted for his advocacy of a textualist reading of the United States Constitution, 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."[10] 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 the majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States (1944), which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans ordered by the liberal president Franklin Roosevelt. During the mid-1960s, Black became more conservative.[11] Black opposed the doctrine of substantive due process (the anti-New Deal Supreme Court's interpretation of this concept made it impossible for the government to enact legislation that conservatives claimed interfered with the ostensible freedom of business owners),[4]: 107–108  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).[4]: 241–242  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”.

Early years

Black 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.[2] The family came from a Baptist background.[12]

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, 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.[2]

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 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.[2]

During World War I, Black resigned to join the United States Army. He served in 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.[13] He joined the Birmingham Civitan Club during this time, eventually serving as president of the group.[14] He remained an active member throughout his life, occasionally contributing articles to Civitan publications.[15]

In the early 1920s, Black became a member of the Robert E. Lee Klan No. 1 in Birmingham, and he resigned in 1925.[16] 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.[16] In response to this news, Black said he had never used the passport and had not kept it.[17] 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.[17]

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 (born 1933). Josephine died in 1951; in 1957, Black married Elizabeth Seay DeMeritte.[18]

Senate career

 
Black during his Senate tenure

In 1926, Black sought election to 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.[19] Senator Black gained 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 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.[20]

In 1935, during the Great Depression, Black became chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, a position he would hold for 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 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.[21]

In 1937 he sponsored the Black-Connery Bill, which sought to establish a national minimum wage and a maximum workweek of thirty hours.[22] 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,[22] was passed in 1938 (after Black left the Senate), becoming known as the Fair Labor Standards Act.[22]

Black was an ardent supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.[4]: 91  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.[4]: 90–91 

Throughout his career as a senator, Black gave speeches based on his belief in the ultimate power of the Constitution.[4]: 106  He came to see the actions of the anti-New Deal Supreme Court as judicial excess; in his view, the court was improperly overturning legislation that had been passed by large majorities in Congress.[4][page needed]

During his Senate career, Black consistently opposed the passage of anti-lynching legislation, as did all of the white Democrats of the Solid South.[23] In 1935 Black led a filibuster of the Wagner-Costigan anti-lynching bill.[24] The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that when a motion to end 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."[25]

Appointment to the Supreme Court

 
1937 poster protesting Black's appointment as Senator due to his Klan background.

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 was reasonably young, confirmable by the Senate, and from a region of the country unrepresented on the court.[4]: 90  The three final candidates were Solicitor General Stanley Reed, Sherman Minton, and Hugo Black.[4] Roosevelt said Reed "had no fire", and Minton did not want the appointment at the time.[4][page needed] 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.[4][page needed] 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.[4]: 92  Both Reed and Minton were later appointed to the Supreme Court; Reed was the next Justice appointed by Roosevelt,[26] while Minton was appointed by Harry Truman in 1949.[27]

On August 12, 1937, Roosevelt nominated Black to fill the vacancy.[28] By tradition, a senator nominated for an executive or judicial office was confirmed immediately and without debate.[4]: 94  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.[4]: 94–95  But Black was a close friend of Walter Francis White, the black executive secretary of the NAACP, who helped assuage critics of 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.[4]: 104–105 

The Judiciary Committee recommended Black for confirmation by a vote of 13–4 on August 16,[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 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;[28] ten Republicans and six Democrats voted against.[4]: 95  He was sworn into office on August 19, 1937.[1] Shortly after, Black's KKK membership became known and there was widespread outrage; nonetheless Black went on to become a prominent champion of civil liberties and civil rights.[29]

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.[30]

Supreme Court career

As soon as Black started on 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.[4]: 16, 50 

During his early years on the Supreme Court, Black helped reverse several earlier court decisions that were based on 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.[31] From 1945 until 1971, Black was the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.[32] As of 2023, Black is the most recent sitting Supreme Court justice to have received his legal education from a public law school.

Relationship with other justices

 
Black was involved in a bitter controversy with Justice Robert H. Jackson (shown above).

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 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 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 the "limited grounds" that each Justice was entitled to determine for himself the propriety of recusal.[33][34] 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.[35] Black and Douglas allegedly leaked to newspapers that they would resign if Jackson were appointed Chief.[35] Truman ultimately chose Fred M. Vinson for 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.[36][37]

In 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".[38]

1950s and beyond

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), 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 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 the high preferred place where they belong in a free society.[39]

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.[40] Efforts to restore school prayer by constitutional amendment failed.[41]

In 1953 Vinson died and 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.[42] 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 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."[4]: 120 

Black's most prominent ideological opponent on 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.[citation needed]

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.[43][44]

Jurisprudence

 
Hugo Black is often described as a "textualist" or "strict constructionist".

Black's jurisprudence 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,[45][46][47] and Antonin Scalia.[48]

Black's jurisprudence had three essential components: history, literalism, and absolutism.[4]: 109 [49] Black's love of history was rooted in a lifelong love of books,[4]: 110  which led him to the belief that historical study was necessary for one to prevent repeating society's past mistakes.[4][page needed] 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."[4]: 119 

Second, Black's commitment to literalism involved using 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.[4]: 109  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."[4]: 123  Black would often lecture his colleagues, liberal or conservative, on the Supreme Court about the importance of acting within the limits of the Constitution.[4][page needed]

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.[4][page needed] 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 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 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, is to frustrate the great design of a written Constitution.[4]: 120–121 

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).[50]

Judicial restraint

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 a keener sense of the limitations that go with them."[4]: 119  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."[51] 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."[52] Black advocated 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.[4]: 119–120  However, he also condemned the actions of those to his right, such as the conservative Four Horsemen of the 1920s and 1930s, who struck down much of the New Deal's legislation.[citation needed]

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 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 is not to write laws to fit the day. Our task is to interpret the Constitution", Black explained.[53]

Textualism and originalism

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[4]: 115–118  and believed that the text of the Constitution is absolutely determinative on any question calling for judicial interpretation, leading to his reputation as 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.[4][page needed] Thus, Black refused to join in 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 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 is not found in the Constitution."[4]: 241 

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 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 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.[54]

Thus, some have seen Black as an originalist. David Strauss, for example, hails him as "[t]he most influential originalist judge of the last hundred years".[55] 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.[56][57]

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 the legislature was denying people constitutional freedoms. Black stated that the legislature "was fully clothed with the power to govern and to maintain order".[4]: 112 

Flexibility with textualism and originalism

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 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 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.'[58][59]

Black also joined Douglas's dissent in Breithaupt v. Abram which argued that substantive due process prevented police from making an involuntary intrusion into a person's body, in this case a blood sample taken while the suspect was unconscious.[60]

Federalism

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.[61] Previously, during the 1920s and 1930s, the court had interpreted the commerce clause narrowly, often striking down laws on the grounds that Congress had overstepped its authority.[4]: 88–90  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).[citation needed]

In several other federalism cases, however, Black ruled against the federal government. For instance, he partially dissented from South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301 (1966), in which the court upheld the validity of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In an attempt to protect the voting rights of African Americans, the act required any state with a history of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing its voting laws. Black wrote that the law,

by providing that some of the States cannot pass state laws or adopt state constitutional amendments without first being compelled to beg federal authorities to approve their policies, so distorts our constitutional structure of government as to render any distinction drawn in the Constitution between state and federal power almost meaningless.[62]

Similarly, in Oregon v. Mitchell (1970), he delivered the opinion of the court holding that the federal government was not entitled to set the voting age for state elections.[citation needed]

In the law of federal jurisdiction, Black made a large contribution by authoring the majority opinion in Younger v. Harris. This case, decided during Black's last year on the court, has given rise to what is now known as Younger abstention. According to this doctrine, an important principle of federalism called "comity"—that is, respect by federal courts for state courts—dictates that federal courts abstain from intervening in ongoing state proceedings, absent the most compelling circumstances. The case is also famous for its discussion of what Black calls "Our Federalism", a discussion in which Black expatiates on

proper respect for state functions, a recognition of the fact that the entire country is made up of a Union of separate state governments, and a continuance of the belief that the National Government will fare best if the States and their institutions are left free to perform their separate functions in their separate ways.[63]

Black was an early supporter of the "one man, one vote" standard for apportionment set by Baker v. Carr. He had previously dissented in support of this view in Baker's predecessor case, Colegrove v. Green.[citation needed]

Civil rights

As a senator, Black filibustered an anti-lynching bill.[64] However, during his tenure on the bench, Black established a record more sympathetic to the civil rights movement. He joined the majority in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), which invalidated the judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants. Similarly, he was part of the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education (1954) court that struck down racial segregation in public schools. Black remained determined to desegregate the South and would call for the Supreme Court to adopt a position of "immediate desegregation" in 1969's Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education.[citation needed]

Black authored the court's majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States, which validated Roosevelt's decision to initiate the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast during World War II. The decision is an example of Black's belief in the limited role of the judiciary; he validated the legislative and executive actions that led to internment, saying "it is unnecessary for us to appraise the possible reasons which might have prompted the order to be used in the form it was."[4]: 113 

Black also tended to favor law and order over civil rights activism.[65][4]: 115  This led him to read the Civil Rights Act narrowly. For example, he dissented in multiple cases reversing convictions of sit-in protesters, arguing to limit the scope of the Civil Rights Act.[66] In 1968 he said, "Unfortunately there are some who think that Negroes should have special privileges under the law."[67] Black felt that actions like protesting, singing, or marching for "good causes" one day could lead to supporting evil causes later on; his sister-in-law explained that Black was "mortally afraid" of protesters. Black opposed the actions of some civil rights and Vietnam War protesters and believed that legislatures first, and courts second, should be responsible for alleviating social wrongs. Black once said he was "vigorously opposed to efforts to extend the First Amendment's freedom of speech beyond speech", to conduct.[4][page needed]

First Amendment

Black took an absolutist approach to First Amendment jurisprudence, believing the first words of the Amendment that said "Congress shall make no law ..." Black rejected the creation of judicial tests for free speech standards, such as the tests for "clear and present danger", "bad tendency", "gravity of the evil", "reasonableness", or "balancing". Black would write that the First Amendment is "wholly 'beyond the reach' of federal power to abridge ... I do not believe that any federal agencies, including Congress and the court, have power or authority to subordinate speech and press to what they think are 'more important interests.'"[4][page needed]

He believed that the First Amendment erected a metaphorical wall of separation between church and state. During his career Black wrote several important opinions relating to church-state separation. He delivered the opinion of the court in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), which held that the establishment clause was applicable not only to the federal government, but also to the states.[citation needed]

In four bar applicant appeals to the Supreme Court, Black advanced the argument that a person's political affiliation or beliefs, without action, was not enough to establish evidence of bad moral character. Black argued in Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners (1957) that New Mexico could not bar Schware from becoming a lawyer because he might have, at one time, consorted with Communist causes. Schware was, in fact, a decorated veteran who fought in World War II. Black reaffirmed this position in Konigsberg v. State Bar of California (1957), where a majority of the court sided with Black. However, in both Konigsberg v. State Bar of California II (1961), and In re Anastaplo (1961), the majority of justices, over Black's vigorous dissent, determined that a person who refused to answer whether they had been a member of an organization on the Attorney General's Subversive Organizations List could be denied admission to the bar on the basis of bad character.[68] Black wrote, in his Anastaplo dissent:

Anastaplo has not indicated, even remotely, a belief that this country is an oppressive one in which the 'right of revolution' should be exercised. Quite the contrary, the entire course of his life, as disclosed by the record, has been one of devotion and service to his country—first, in his willingness to defend its security at the risk of his own life in time of war and, later, in his willingness to defend its freedoms at the risk of his professional career in time of peace.[69]

Black's majority opinion in McCollum v. Board of Education (1948) held that the government could not provide religious instruction in public schools. In Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), he delivered an opinion which affirmed that the states could not use religious tests as qualifications for public office. Similarly, he authored the majority opinion in Engel v. Vitale (1962), which declared it unconstitutional for states to require the recitation of official prayers in public schools.[citation needed]

Justice Black is often regarded as a leading defender of First Amendment rights such as the freedom of speech and of the press.[70] He refused to accept the doctrine that the freedom of speech could be curtailed on national security grounds. Thus, in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), he voted to allow newspapers to publish the Pentagon Papers despite the Nixon Administration's contention that publication would have security implications. In his concurring opinion, Black stated,

In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. ... The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment.

— New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 717 (1971).[71]

He rejected the idea that the government was entitled to punish "obscene" speech. Likewise, he argued that defamation laws abridged the freedom of speech and were therefore unconstitutional. Most members of the Supreme Court rejected both of these views; Black's interpretation did attract the support of Justice Douglas.[4][page needed]

However, he did not believe that individuals had the right to speak wherever they pleased. He delivered the majority opinion in Adderley v. Florida (1966), controversially upholding a trespassing conviction for protesters who demonstrated on government property. He also dissented from Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), in which the Supreme Court ruled that students had the right to wear armbands (as a form of protest) in schools, writing,

While I have always believed that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments neither the State nor the Federal Government has any authority to regulate or censor the content of speech, I have never believed that any person has a right to give speeches or engage in demonstrations where he pleases and when he pleases.[72]

Moreover, Black took a narrow view of what constituted "speech" under the First Amendment; for him, "conduct" did not deserve the same protections that "speech" did.[4]: 114–115  For example, he did not believe that flag burning was speech; in Street v. New York (1969), he wrote: "It passes my belief that anything in the Federal Constitution bars a State from making the deliberate burning of the American flag an offense."[73] Similarly, he dissented from Cohen v. California (1971), in which the court held that wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words "Fuck the Draft" was speech protected by the First Amendment. He asserted that this activity "was mainly conduct, and little speech".[citation needed]

As a Justice, Black held the view that the court should literally enforce constitutional guarantees, especially the First Amendment free speech clause. He was often labeled an 'activist' because of his willingness to review legislation that arguably violated constitutional provisions. Black maintained that literalism was necessary to cabin judicial power, which informed his dissent in Anastaplo.[50]

Criminal procedure

Black adopted a narrower interpretation of the Fourth Amendment than many of his colleagues on the Warren Court. He dissented from Katz v. United States (1967), in which the court held that warrantless wiretapping violated the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. He argued that the Fourth Amendment only protected tangible items from physical searches or seizures. Thus, he concluded that telephone conversations were not within the scope of the amendment, and that warrantless wiretapping was consequently permissible.[74]

Justice Black originally believed that the Constitution did not require the exclusion of illegally seized evidence at trials. In his concurrence to Wolf v. Colorado (1949), he claimed that the exclusionary rule was "not a command of the Fourth Amendment but ... a judicially created rule of evidence".[75] But he later changed his mind and joined the majority in Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which applied it to state as well as federal criminal investigations. In his concurrence, he indicated that his support was based on the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of the right against self-incrimination, not on the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. He wrote, "I am still not persuaded that the Fourth Amendment, standing alone, would be enough to bar the introduction into evidence ... seized ... in violation of its commands."[76]

In other instances Black took a fairly broad view of the rights of criminal defendants. He joined the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966), which required law enforcement officers to warn suspects of their rights prior to interrogations, and consistently voted to apply the guarantees of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments at the state level.[citation needed]

Black was the author of the landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), which ruled that the states must provide an attorney to an indigent criminal defendant who cannot afford one. Before Gideon, the court had held that such a requirement applied only to the federal government.[77]

Bill of Rights applicable to states, or "incorporation" question

One of the most notable aspects of Justice Black's jurisprudence was the view that the entirety of the federal Bill of Rights was applicable to the states. Originally, the Bill of Rights was binding only upon the federal government, as the Supreme Court ruled in Barron v. Baltimore (1833). According to Black, the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, "incorporated" the Bill of Rights, or made it binding upon the states as well. In particular, he pointed to the Privileges or Immunities Clause, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." He proposed that the term "privileges or immunities" encompassed the rights mentioned in the first eight amendments to the Constitution.[4]: 212–213 

Black first expounded this theory of incorporation when the Supreme Court ruled in Adamson v. California (1947) that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against self-incrimination did not apply to the states. It was during this period of time that Hugo Black became a disciple of John Lilburne and his claim of 'freeborn rights'.[78] In an appendix to his dissenting opinion, Justice Black analyzed statements made by those who framed the Fourteenth Amendment, reaching the conclusion that "the Fourteenth Amendment, and particularly its privileges and immunities clause, was a plain application of the Bill of Rights to the states."[79]

Black's theory attracted the support of Justices such as Frank Murphy and William O. Douglas. However, it never achieved the support of a majority of the court.[4][page needed] The most prominent opponents of Black's theory were Justices Felix Frankfurter and John Marshall Harlan II.[4][page needed] Frankfurter and Harlan argued that the Fourteenth Amendment did not incorporate the Bill of Rights per se, but merely protected rights that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty", which was the standard Justice Cardozo had established earlier in Palko v. Connecticut.[citation needed]

The Supreme Court never accepted the argument that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the entirety of the Bill of Rights.[80] However, it did agree that some "fundamental" guarantees were made applicable to the states. For the most part, during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, only First Amendment rights (such as free exercise of religion and freedom of speech) were deemed sufficiently fundamental by the Supreme Court to be incorporated.[citation needed]

However, during the 1960s, the court under Chief Justice Warren took the process much further, making almost all guarantees of the Bill of Rights binding upon the states.[81] Thus, although the court failed to accept Black's theory of total incorporation, the result of its jurisprudence is very close to what Black advocated. Today, the only parts of the first eight amendments that have not been extended to the states are the Third and Seventh Amendments, the grand jury clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment's protection against excessive bail, and the guarantee of the Sixth Amendment, as interpreted, that criminal juries be composed of 12 members.[82]

Due process clause

Justice Black was well known for his rejection of the doctrine of substantive due process. Most Supreme Court Justices accepted the view that the due process clause encompassed not only procedural guarantees, but also "fundamental fairness" and fundamental rights. Thus, it was argued that due process included a "substantive" component in addition to its "procedural" component.[citation needed]

Black, however, believed that this interpretation of the due process clause was unjustifiably broad. In his dissent to Griswold, he charged that the doctrine of substantive due process "takes away from Congress and States the power to make laws based on their own judgment of fairness and wisdom, and transfers that power to this Court for ultimate determination".[54] Instead, Black advocated a much narrower interpretation of the clause. In his dissent to In re Winship, he analyzed the history of the term "due process of law", and concluded: "For me, the only correct meaning of that phrase is that our Government must proceed according to the 'law of the land'—that is, according to written constitutional and statutory provisions as interpreted by court decisions."[83]

Black's view on due process drew from his reading of British history; to him, due process meant all persons were to be tried in accordance with the Bill of Rights' procedural guarantees and in accordance with constitutionally pursuant laws. Black advocated equal treatment by the government for all persons, regardless of wealth, age, or race. Black's view of due process was restrictive in the sense that it was premised on equal procedures; it did not extend to substantive due process. This was in accordance with Black's literalist views.[4]: 116–117  Black did not tie procedural due process exclusively to the Bill of Rights, but he did tie it exclusively to the Bill of Rights combined with other explicit provisions of the Constitution.[84]

None of Black's colleagues shared his interpretation of the due process clause. His chief rival on the issue (and on many other issues) was Felix Frankfurter, who advocated a substantive view of due process based on "natural law"—if a challenged action did not "shock the conscience" of the jurist, or violate British concepts of fairness, Frankfurter would find no violation of due process of law. John M. Harlan II largely agreed with Frankfurter, and was highly critical of Black's view, indicating his "continued bafflement at ... Black's insistence that due process ... does not embody a concept of fundamental fairness" in his Winship concurrence.[83]

Voting rights

No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined. Our Constitution leaves no room for classification of people in a way that unnecessarily abridges this right.

--Justice Black – on the right to vote as the foundation of democracy in Wesberry v. Sanders (1964).[85]

Black was one of the Supreme Court's foremost defenders of the "one man, one vote" principle.[86] He delivered the opinion of the court in Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), holding that the Constitution required congressional districts in any state to be approximately equal in population. He concluded that the Constitution's command "that Representatives be chosen 'by the People of the several States' means that as nearly as is practicable one man's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another's".[87] Likewise, he voted in favor of Reynolds v. Sims (1964), which extended the same requirement to state legislative districts on the basis of the equal protection clause.[citation needed]

At the same time, Black did not believe that the equal protection clause made poll taxes unconstitutional. During his first term on the court, he participated in a unanimous decision to uphold Georgia's poll tax in the case of Breedlove v. Suttles.[88] Then, twenty-nine years later, he dissented from the court's ruling in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), invalidating the use of the poll tax as a qualification to vote, in which Breedlove was overturned. He criticized the court for exceeding its "limited power to interpret the original meaning of the Equal Protection Clause" and for "giving that clause a new meaning which it believes represents a better governmental policy".[89] He also dissented from Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15 (1969), in which a majority struck down a statute that prohibited registered voters from participating in certain school district elections unless they owned or rented real property in their local school district, or were parents or guardians of children attending the public schools in the district.[90]

Equal Protection Clause

By the late 1940s, Black believed that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause was a constitutional prohibition against any state governmental actions that discriminated on the basis of race in an invidious or capricious manner. Throughout the remainder of his time on the court, Black saw only race and the characteristics of alienage as the "suspect" categories that were addressed and protected by equal protection, along with the one-man, one-vote principle, all of which merited strict scrutiny.[4]: 118  In 1948, he participated in two court decisions that struck down certain California laws that were discriminatory towards aliens: Takahashi v. Fish & Game Commission[91] (he wrote the majority opinion) and Oyama v. California[92] (he wrote a concurring opinion). During his last full term on the court, he participated in a unanimous decision, Graham v. Richardson, striking down statutes that restricted welfare benefits to legal aliens but not to U.S. citizens. The majority opinion stated, "[C]lassifications based on alienage, like those based on nationality or race, are inherently suspect and subject to close judicial scrutiny. Aliens as a class are a prime example of a 'discrete and insular minority' for whom such heightened judicial solicitude is appropriate."[93]

Consistent with his view that the equal protection clause had a limited meaning, Black did not believe illegitimate children were a suspect class, and he applied only rational basis review to laws that were discriminatory toward such children. In 1968, he joined a dissenting opinion written by Justice Harlan in the case of Levy v. Louisiana, in which a majority of the court overturned a decision made by the Louisiana courts to enforce a statute that was discriminatory toward "unacknowledged" illegitimate children.[94][95] Three years later, he wrote a majority opinion for the case of Labine v. Vincent.[96] He reasoned that for a state to treat illegitimate children worse than legitimate children is scarcely any different than treating "concubines" worse than wives, or treating other relatives of a person worse than any other relatives. "It may be possible that some of these choices are more 'rational' than the choices inherent in Louisiana's categories of illegitimates. But the power to make rules to establish, protect, and strengthen family life ... is committed by the Constitution of the United States and the people of Louisiana to the legislature of that State. Absent a specific constitutional guarantee, it is for that legislature, not the life-tenured judges of this Court, to select from among possible laws."[96]

Black apparently did not think of homosexuals as a suspect class either, voting with five other colleagues on the court to uphold the authority of the federal government to deport a gay man just because he was gay, in Boutilier v. Immigration and Naturalization Service.[97]

Retirement and death

 
The Hugo L. Black United States Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama

Justice Black admitted himself to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, in August 1971, and subsequently retired from the court on September 17.[98] He suffered a stroke two days later and died on September 25.[99]

Services were held at the National Cathedral, and more than 1,000 people attended. Pursuant to Justice Black's wishes, the coffin was "simple and cheap" and was displayed at the service to show that the costs of burial are not reflective of the worth of the human whose remains were present.[100]

His remains were interred at the Arlington National Cemetery.[101][102] He is one of fourteen Supreme Court justices buried at Arlington. The others are Harry Blackmun, William Brennan, Arthur Goldberg, Thurgood Marshall, Potter Stewart, William O. Douglas, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg,[103] Chief Justice William Howard Taft, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist.[104]

President Richard Nixon nominated Lewis Powell to succeed Black on the Supreme Court. Powell was confirmed by an 89 to 1 vote, and was sworn in on January 7, 1972.[105]

Ku Klux Klan and anti-Catholicism

Shortly after Black's appointment to the Supreme Court, Ray Sprigle of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote a series of articles, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, revealing Black's involvement in the Klan[4]: 96 [106] and describing his resignation from the Klan as "the first move of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator from Alabama". Sprigle wrote that "Black and the leaders of the Klan decided it was good political strategy for Black to make the senatorial race unimpeded by Klan membership but backed by the power of the Klan. That resignation [was] filed for the duration of the campaign but never revealed to the rank and file of the order and held secretly in the records of the Alabama Realm".[106]

Roosevelt denied knowledge of Black's KKK membership.[107][108]

In a radio statement on October 1, 1937,[109] Black said in part, "I number among my friends many members of the colored race. Certainly, they are entitled to the full measure of protection accorded by our Constitution and our laws ..."[110] Black also said, "I did join the Klan. I later resigned. I never rejoined. ... 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. I have never resumed it and never expect to do so."[4]: 98  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "fifty million listeners heard the unprecedented speech."[citation needed]

Near the end of his life, Black said that joining the Klan was a mistake: "I would have joined any group if it helped get me votes."[4]: 16, 50 

Biographers in the 1990s examined Black's views of religious denominations. Ball found regarding the Klan that Black "sympathized with the group's economic, nativist, and anti-Catholic beliefs".[4]: 16  Newman said Black "disliked the Catholic Church as an institution" and gave numerous anti-Catholic speeches in his 1926 election campaign to Ku Klux Klan meetings across Alabama.[111] However, in 1937 The Harvard Crimson reported on Black's appointment of a Jewish law clerk, noting that he "earlier had appointed Miss Annie Butt, a Catholic, as a secretary, and the Supreme Court had designated Leon Smallwood, a Negro and a Catholic as his messenger."[112] In the 1940s,[113] Black became intrigued by the writings of Paul Blanshard.[114][115]

Thurgood Marshall and Brown v. Board of Education

Black was one of the nine justices of the Supreme Court who in 1954 ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The plaintiffs were represented by Thurgood Marshall. A decade later, on October 2, 1967, Marshall became the first African American to be appointed to the Supreme Court, and served with Black on the court until Black's retirement on September 17, 1971.

United States v. Price

In United States v. Price (1965), eighteen Ku Klux Klan members were charged with murder and conspiracy for the deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, but the charges were dismissed by the trial court. A unanimous Supreme Court, which included Black, reversed the dismissal and ordered the case to proceed to trial. Seven of these men, including fellow Klansmen Samuel Bowers, Cecil Price and Alton Wayne Roberts were found guilty of the crime; eight of them, including Lawrence A. Rainey, were found not guilty; and three of them, including Edgar Ray Killen, had their cases end in a mistrial.[citation needed]

Legacy

Hugo Black was twice the subject of covers of Time magazine: On August 26, 1935, as a United States Senator;[116] and on October 9, 1964, as an associate justice (art by Robert Vickrey).[117]

External video
  Profile of Hugo Black on the 25th anniversary of his death, September 28, 1996, C-SPAN

In 1986, Black appeared on the 5¢ postage stamp in the Great Americans series issued by the United States Postal Service. Along with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. he was one of only two Associate Justices to do so until the later inclusions of Thurgood Marshall, Joseph Story, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and William J. Brennan, Jr.[118][119]

In 1987, Congress passed a law sponsored by Alabama representative Ben Erdreich, designating the new courthouse building for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham, as the "Hugo L. Black United States Courthouse".[120]

An extensive collection of Black's personal, senatorial, and judicial papers is archived at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, where it is open for research.[121]

Justice Black is honored in an exhibit in the Bounds Law Library at the University of Alabama School of Law. A special Hugo Black collection is maintained by the library.[122]

Black served on the Supreme Court for thirty-four years, making him the fifth longest-serving Justice in Supreme Court history. He was the senior (longest serving) justice on the court for an unprecedented twenty-five years, from the death of Chief Justice Stone on April 22, 1946, to his own retirement on September 17, 1971. As the longest-serving associate justice, he was acting Chief Justice on two occasions: from Stone's death until Vinson took office on June 24, 1946; and from Vinson's death on September 8, 1953, until Warren took office on October 5, 1953. There was no interregnum between the Warren and Burger courts in 1969.[citation needed]

See also

References

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  65. ^ Schwartz, Bernard, Super Chief (1983) p. 630
  66. ^ Hamm v. Rock Hill, 379 U.S. 306, 318 (1964) (Black, J., dissenting). See also Bell v. Maryland, 378 U.S. 226, 318 (1964) (Black, J., dissenting); Adderley v. Fla., 385 U.S. 39 (1966) (Black, J.); Brown v. Louisiana.
  67. ^ Newman, Hugo Black p. 550.
  68. ^ Joshua E. Kastenberg, Hugo Black's Vision of the Lawyer, the First Amendment, and the Duty of the Judiciary: The Bar Applicant Cases in a National Security State, 20 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, 661 (2012)
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  70. ^ Loren P. Beth, "Mr. Justice Black and the First Amendment: Comments on the Dilemma of Constitutional Interpretation", Journal of Politics, November 1979, Vol. 41 Issue 4, pp. 1105–1124
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Further reading

  • Abraham, Henry J., Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed. (Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1992). ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
  • Atkins, Burton M.; Sloope, Terry (1986). "The 'New' Hugo Black and the Warren Court". Polity. 18 (4): 621–637. doi:10.2307/3234885. JSTOR 3234885. S2CID 155514353. Argues that in the 1960s Black moved to the right on cases involving civil liberties, civil rights, and economic liberalism.
  • Ball, Howard; Cooper, Phillip (1994). "Fighting Justices: Hugo L. Black and William O. Douglas and Supreme Court Conflict". American Journal of Legal History. 38 (1): 1–37. doi:10.2307/845321. JSTOR 845321.
  • Ball, Howard. (1992). Of Power and Right: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and America's Constitutional Revolution. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504612-0.
  • Ball, Howard. (1996). Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507814-4.
  • Ball, Howard and Phillip J. Cooper. (1992) . Of Power and Right: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and America's Constitutional Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Ball, Howard. (1975). The Vision and the Dream of Justice Hugo L. Black: An Examination of a Judicial Philosophy. University, AL: University of Alabama Press.
  • Belknap, Michael, The Supreme Court Under Earl Warren, 1953–1969 (2005), 406 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies,1789–1995 (2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001) ISBN 978-1-56802-126-3.
  • Dunne, Gerald T. (1977). Hugo Black and the Judicial Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  • Frank, John Paul. (1949). Mr. Justice Black, the Man and His Opinions. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  • Frank, John Paul, The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions (Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors) (Chelsea House Publishers: 1995) ISBN 978-0-7910-1377-9.
  • Freyer, Tony Allen. (1990). Hugo L. Black and the Dilemma of American Liberalism. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman. ISBN 978-0-8173-1194-0.
  • Freyer, Tony Allan, ed. (1990). Justice Hugo Black and Modern America. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-1194-7.
  • Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-19-505835-6
  • Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer. (1972). Hugo Black: The Alabama Years. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
  • Hockett, Jeffrey D. (1992). "Justices Frankfurter and Black: Social Theory and Constitutional Interpretation". Political Science Quarterly. 107 (3): 479–499. doi:10.2307/2152441. JSTOR 2152441.
  • Hockett, Jeffrey D. (1996). New Deal Justice: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Hugo L. Black, Felix Frankfurther, and Robert H. Jackson. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8476-8210-2.
  • Magee, James J. (1980). Mr. Justice Black, Absolutist of the Court. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. ISBN 1-58838-144-7.
  • Mendelson, Wallace. (1961). Justices Black and Frankfurter: Conflict in the Court. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Newman, Roger K. (1994). Hugo Black: A Biography. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-8232-1786-1, 0-679-43180-2.
  • Pritchett, C. Herman, Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court. (The University of Chicago Press, 1969) ISBN 978-0-226-68443-7
  • Silverstein, Mark. (1984). Constitutional Faiths: Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, and the Process of Judicial Decision Making. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Simon, James F. (1989). The Antagonists: Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, and Civil Liberties in America. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  • Strickland, Stephen Parks, ed. (1967). Hugo Black and the Supreme Court: A Symposium. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill.
  • Suitts, Steve. (2005). Hugo Black of Alabama. Montgomery, AL: New South Books. ISBN 1-58838-144-7.
  • Urofsky, Melvin I., Division and Discord: The Supreme Court under Stone and Vinson, 1941–1953 (University of South Carolina Press, 1997) ISBN 1-57003-120-7.
  • Urofsky, Melvin I., The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Garland Publishing 1994). 590 pp. ISBN 978-0-8153-1176-8.
  • Williams, Charlotte. (1950). Hugo L. Black: A Study in the Judicial Process. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press.
  • Woodward, Robert and Armstrong, Scott. The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (1979). ISBN 978-0-380-52183-8, 978-0-671-24110-0, 978-0-7432-7402-9.
  • Yarbrough, Tinsley E. (1971). "Mr. Justice Black and Legal Positivism". Virginia Law Review. 57 (3): 375–407. doi:10.2307/1072096. JSTOR 1072096.
  • Yarbrough, Tinsley E. (1989). Mr. Justice Black and His Critics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Primary sources

  • Black, Hugo L. (1968). A Constitutional Faith. New York, Knopf.
  • Black, Hugo L and Elizabeth Black. (1985). Mr. Justice Black and Mrs. Black: The Memoirs of Hugo L. Black and Elizabeth Black. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-54432-8.
  • Black, Hugo L., Mr. Justice Murphy. 48 Michigan Law Review 739 (1950).
  • Black, Hugo, Jr. (1975). My Father: A Remembrance. New York: Random House.

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Alabama
(Class 3)
1926, 1932 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference
1927–1937 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Alabama
1927–1937
Served alongside: Thomas Heflin, John Bankhead 		Succeeded by
New office Chair of the Senate Lobby Investigation Committee
1935–1937 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair of the Senate Education Committee
1937 		Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1937–1971 		Succeeded by

March 02, 2023
hugo, black, hugo, lafayette, black, february, 1886, september, 1971, american, lawyer, politician, jurist, served, senator, from, alabama, from, 1927, 1937, associate, justice, supreme, court, from, 1937, 1971, member, democratic, party, devoted, dealer, blac. 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 a devoted New Dealer 3 Black endorsed Franklin D Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections 4 Before he became a Senator Black espoused anti Catholic views and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama from which he resigned in 1925 5 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 6 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 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 7 and he outlasted all except for William O Douglas 8 Hugo BlackBlack photographed by Harris amp Ewing 1937Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesIn office August 19 1937 September 17 1971 1 Nominated byFranklin D RooseveltPreceded byWillis Van DevanterSucceeded byLewis F Powell Jr Chair of the Senate Education CommitteeIn office January 3 1937 August 19 1937Preceded byDavid WalshSucceeded byElbert ThomasSecretary of the Senate Democratic ConferenceIn office 1927 1937LeaderJoseph Taylor RobinsonPreceded byWilliam H KingSucceeded byJoshua B LeeUnited States Senatorfrom AlabamaIn office March 4 1927 August 19 1937Preceded byOscar UnderwoodSucceeded byDixie GravesPersonal detailsBornHugo Lafayette Black 1886 02 27 February 27 1886Harlan Alabama U S DiedSeptember 25 1971 1971 09 25 aged 85 Bethesda Maryland U S Resting placeArlington National CemeteryPolitical partyDemocraticSpouse s Josephine Foster m 1921 died 1951 wbr Elizabeth DeMeritte m 1957 wbr Children3 including Hugo and SterlingEducationUniversity of Alabama LLB SignatureMilitary serviceAllegiance United StatesBranch service United States ArmyYears of service1917 1919RankCaptainUnit81st Field Artillery RegimentBattles warsWorld War I 2 The fifth longest serving justice in Supreme Court history Black was one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century For much of his career Black was considered strongly liberal 9 He is noted for his advocacy of a textualist reading of the United States Constitution 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 10 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 the majority opinion in Korematsu v United States 1944 which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans ordered by the liberal president Franklin Roosevelt During the mid 1960s Black became more conservative 11 Black opposed the doctrine of substantive due process the anti New Deal Supreme Court s interpretation of this concept made it impossible for the government to enact legislation that conservatives claimed interfered with the ostensible freedom of business owners 4 107 108 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 4 241 242 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 Contents 1 Early years 2 Senate career 3 Appointment to the Supreme Court 4 Supreme Court career 4 1 Relationship with other justices 4 2 1950s and beyond 5 Jurisprudence 5 1 Judicial restraint 5 2 Textualism and originalism 5 3 Flexibility with textualism and originalism 5 4 Federalism 5 5 Civil rights 5 6 First Amendment 5 7 Criminal procedure 5 8 Bill of Rights applicable to states or incorporation question 5 9 Due process clause 5 10 Voting rights 5 11 Equal Protection Clause 6 Retirement and death 7 Ku Klux Klan and anti Catholicism 7 1 Thurgood Marshall and Brown v Board of Education 7 2 United States v Price 8 Legacy 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 11 1 Primary sources 12 External linksEarly years EditBlack 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 2 The family came from a Baptist background 12 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 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 2 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 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 2 During World War I Black resigned to join the United States Army He served in 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 13 He joined the Birmingham Civitan Club during this time eventually serving as president of the group 14 He remained an active member throughout his life occasionally contributing articles to Civitan publications 15 In the early 1920s Black became a member of the Robert E Lee Klan No 1 in Birmingham and he resigned in 1925 16 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 16 In response to this news Black said he had never used the passport and had not kept it 17 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 17 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 born 1933 Josephine died in 1951 in 1957 Black married Elizabeth Seay DeMeritte 18 Senate career Edit Black during his Senate tenure In 1926 Black sought election to 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 19 Senator Black gained 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 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 20 In 1935 during the Great Depression Black became chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor a position he would hold for 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 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 21 In 1937 he sponsored the Black Connery Bill which sought to establish a national minimum wage and a maximum workweek of thirty hours 22 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 22 was passed in 1938 after Black left the Senate becoming known as the Fair Labor Standards Act 22 Black was an ardent supporter of President Franklin D Roosevelt and the New Deal 4 91 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 4 90 91 Throughout his career as a senator Black gave speeches based on his belief in the ultimate power of the Constitution 4 106 He came to see the actions of the anti New Deal Supreme Court as judicial excess in his view the court was improperly overturning legislation that had been passed by large majorities in Congress 4 page needed During his Senate career Black consistently opposed the passage of anti lynching legislation as did all of the white Democrats of the Solid South 23 In 1935 Black led a filibuster of the Wagner Costigan anti lynching bill 24 The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that when a motion to end 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 25 Appointment to the Supreme Court Edit 1937 poster protesting Black s appointment as Senator due to his Klan background 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 was reasonably young confirmable by the Senate and from a region of the country unrepresented on the court 4 90 The three final candidates were Solicitor General Stanley Reed Sherman Minton and Hugo Black 4 Roosevelt said Reed had no fire and Minton did not want the appointment at the time 4 page needed 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 4 page needed 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 4 92 Both Reed and Minton were later appointed to the Supreme Court Reed was the next Justice appointed by Roosevelt 26 while Minton was appointed by Harry Truman in 1949 27 On August 12 1937 Roosevelt nominated Black to fill the vacancy 28 By tradition a senator nominated for an executive or judicial office was confirmed immediately and without debate 4 94 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 4 94 95 But Black was a close friend of Walter Francis White the black executive secretary of the NAACP who helped assuage critics of 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 4 104 105 The Judiciary Committee recommended Black for confirmation by a vote of 13 4 on August 16 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 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 28 ten Republicans and six Democrats voted against 4 95 He was sworn into office on August 19 1937 1 Shortly after Black s KKK membership became known and there was widespread outrage nonetheless Black went on to become a prominent champion of civil liberties and civil rights 29 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 30 Supreme Court career EditAs soon as Black started on 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 4 16 50 During his early years on the Supreme Court Black helped reverse several earlier court decisions that were based on 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 31 From 1945 until 1971 Black was the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 32 As of 2023 Black is the most recent sitting Supreme Court justice to have received his legal education from a public law school Relationship with other justices Edit Black was involved in a bitter controversy with Justice Robert H Jackson shown above 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 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 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 the limited grounds that each Justice was entitled to determine for himself the propriety of recusal 33 34 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 35 Black and Douglas allegedly leaked to newspapers that they would resign if Jackson were appointed Chief 35 Truman ultimately chose Fred M Vinson for 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 36 37 In 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 38 1950s and beyond Edit 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 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 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 the high preferred place where they belong in a free society 39 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 40 Efforts to restore school prayer by constitutional amendment failed 41 In 1953 Vinson died and 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 42 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 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 4 120 Black s most prominent ideological opponent on 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 citation needed 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 43 44 Jurisprudence Edit Hugo Black is often described as a textualist or strict constructionist Black s jurisprudence 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 45 46 47 and Antonin Scalia 48 Black s jurisprudence had three essential components history literalism and absolutism 4 109 49 Black s love of history was rooted in a lifelong love of books 4 110 which led him to the belief that historical study was necessary for one to prevent repeating society s past mistakes 4 page needed 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 4 119 Second Black s commitment to literalism involved using 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 4 109 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 4 123 Black would often lecture his colleagues liberal or conservative on the Supreme Court about the importance of acting within the limits of the Constitution 4 page needed 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 4 page needed 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 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 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 is to frustrate the great design of a written Constitution 4 120 121 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 50 Judicial restraint Edit 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 a keener sense of the limitations that go with them 4 119 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 51 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 52 Black advocated 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 4 119 120 However he also condemned the actions of those to his right such as the conservative Four Horsemen of the 1920s and 1930s who struck down much of the New Deal s legislation citation needed 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 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 is not to write laws to fit the day Our task is to interpret the Constitution Black explained 53 Textualism and originalism Edit 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 4 115 118 and believed that the text of the Constitution is absolutely determinative on any question calling for judicial interpretation leading to his reputation as 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 4 page needed Thus Black refused to join in 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 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 is not found in the Constitution 4 241 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 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 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 54 Thus some have seen Black as an originalist David Strauss for example hails him as t he most influential originalist judge of the last hundred years 55 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 56 57 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 the legislature was denying people constitutional freedoms Black stated that the legislature was fully clothed with the power to govern and to maintain order 4 112 Flexibility with textualism and originalism Edit 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 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 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 58 59 Black also joined Douglas s dissent in Breithaupt v Abram which argued that substantive due process prevented police from making an involuntary intrusion into a person s body in this case a blood sample taken while the suspect was unconscious 60 Federalism Edit 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 61 Previously during the 1920s and 1930s the court had interpreted the commerce clause narrowly often striking down laws on the grounds that Congress had overstepped its authority 4 88 90 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 citation needed In several other federalism cases however Black ruled against the federal government For instance he partially dissented from South Carolina v Katzenbach 383 U S 301 1966 in which the court upheld the validity of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 In an attempt to protect the voting rights of African Americans the act required any state with a history of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing its voting laws Black wrote that the law by providing that some of the States cannot pass state laws or adopt state constitutional amendments without first being compelled to beg federal authorities to approve their policies so distorts our constitutional structure of government as to render any distinction drawn in the Constitution between state and federal power almost meaningless 62 Similarly in Oregon v Mitchell 1970 he delivered the opinion of the court holding that the federal government was not entitled to set the voting age for state elections citation needed In the law of federal jurisdiction Black made a large contribution by authoring the majority opinion in Younger v Harris This case decided during Black s last year on the court has given rise to what is now known as Younger abstention According to this doctrine an important principle of federalism called comity that is respect by federal courts for state courts dictates that federal courts abstain from intervening in ongoing state proceedings absent the most compelling circumstances The case is also famous for its discussion of what Black calls Our Federalism a discussion in which Black expatiates on proper respect for state functions a recognition of the fact that the entire country is made up of a Union of separate state governments and a continuance of the belief that the National Government will fare best if the States and their institutions are left free to perform their separate functions in their separate ways 63 Black was an early supporter of the one man one vote standard for apportionment set by Baker v Carr He had previously dissented in support of this view in Baker s predecessor case Colegrove v Green citation needed Civil rights Edit As a senator Black filibustered an anti lynching bill 64 However during his tenure on the bench Black established a record more sympathetic to the civil rights movement He joined the majority in Shelley v Kraemer 1948 which invalidated the judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants Similarly he was part of the unanimous Brown v Board of Education 1954 court that struck down racial segregation in public schools Black remained determined to desegregate the South and would call for the Supreme Court to adopt a position of immediate desegregation in 1969 s Alexander v Holmes County Board of Education citation needed Black authored the court s majority opinion in Korematsu v United States which validated Roosevelt s decision to initiate the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast during World War II The decision is an example of Black s belief in the limited role of the judiciary he validated the legislative and executive actions that led to internment saying it is unnecessary for us to appraise the possible reasons which might have prompted the order to be used in the form it was 4 113 Black also tended to favor law and order over civil rights activism 65 4 115 This led him to read the Civil Rights Act narrowly For example he dissented in multiple cases reversing convictions of sit in protesters arguing to limit the scope of the Civil Rights Act 66 In 1968 he said Unfortunately there are some who think that Negroes should have special privileges under the law 67 Black felt that actions like protesting singing or marching for good causes one day could lead to supporting evil causes later on his sister in law explained that Black was mortally afraid of protesters Black opposed the actions of some civil rights and Vietnam War protesters and believed that legislatures first and courts second should be responsible for alleviating social wrongs Black once said he was vigorously opposed to efforts to extend the First Amendment s freedom of speech beyond speech to conduct 4 page needed First Amendment Edit Black took an absolutist approach to First Amendment jurisprudence believing the first words of the Amendment that said Congress shall make no law Black rejected the creation of judicial tests for free speech standards such as the tests for clear and present danger bad tendency gravity of the evil reasonableness or balancing Black would write that the First Amendment is wholly beyond the reach of federal power to abridge I do not believe that any federal agencies including Congress and the court have power or authority to subordinate speech and press to what they think are more important interests 4 page needed He believed that the First Amendment erected a metaphorical wall of separation between church and state During his career Black wrote several important opinions relating to church state separation He delivered the opinion of the court in Everson v Board of Education 1947 which held that the establishment clause was applicable not only to the federal government but also to the states citation needed In four bar applicant appeals to the Supreme Court Black advanced the argument that a person s political affiliation or beliefs without action was not enough to establish evidence of bad moral character Black argued in Schware v Board of Bar Examiners 1957 that New Mexico could not bar Schware from becoming a lawyer because he might have at one time consorted with Communist causes Schware was in fact a decorated veteran who fought in World War II Black reaffirmed this position in Konigsberg v State Bar of California 1957 where a majority of the court sided with Black However in both Konigsberg v State Bar of California II 1961 and In re Anastaplo 1961 the majority of justices over Black s vigorous dissent determined that a person who refused to answer whether they had been a member of an organization on the Attorney General s Subversive Organizations List could be denied admission to the bar on the basis of bad character 68 Black wrote in his Anastaplo dissent Anastaplo has not indicated even remotely a belief that this country is an oppressive one in which the right of revolution should be exercised Quite the contrary the entire course of his life as disclosed by the record has been one of devotion and service to his country first in his willingness to defend its security at the risk of his own life in time of war and later in his willingness to defend its freedoms at the risk of his professional career in time of peace 69 Black s majority opinion in McCollum v Board of Education 1948 held that the government could not provide religious instruction in public schools In Torcaso v Watkins 1961 he delivered an opinion which affirmed that the states could not use religious tests as qualifications for public office Similarly he authored the majority opinion in Engel v Vitale 1962 which declared it unconstitutional for states to require the recitation of official prayers in public schools citation needed Justice Black is often regarded as a leading defender of First Amendment rights such as the freedom of speech and of the press 70 He refused to accept the doctrine that the freedom of speech could be curtailed on national security grounds Thus in New York Times Co v United States 1971 he voted to allow newspapers to publish the Pentagon Papers despite the Nixon Administration s contention that publication would have security implications In his concurring opinion Black stated In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy The press was to serve the governed not the governors The Government s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government The word security is a broad vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment New York Times Co v United States 403 U S 713 717 1971 71 He rejected the idea that the government was entitled to punish obscene speech Likewise he argued that defamation laws abridged the freedom of speech and were therefore unconstitutional Most members of the Supreme Court rejected both of these views Black s interpretation did attract the support of Justice Douglas 4 page needed However he did not believe that individuals had the right to speak wherever they pleased He delivered the majority opinion in Adderley v Florida 1966 controversially upholding a trespassing conviction for protesters who demonstrated on government property He also dissented from Tinker v Des Moines 1969 in which the Supreme Court ruled that students had the right to wear armbands as a form of protest in schools writing While I have always believed that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments neither the State nor the Federal Government has any authority to regulate or censor the content of speech I have never believed that any person has a right to give speeches or engage in demonstrations where he pleases and when he pleases 72 Moreover Black took a narrow view of what constituted speech under the First Amendment for him conduct did not deserve the same protections that speech did 4 114 115 For example he did not believe that flag burning was speech in Street v New York 1969 he wrote It passes my belief that anything in the Federal Constitution bars a State from making the deliberate burning of the American flag an offense 73 Similarly he dissented from Cohen v California 1971 in which the court held that wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words Fuck the Draft was speech protected by the First Amendment He asserted that this activity was mainly conduct and little speech citation needed As a Justice Black held the view that the court should literally enforce constitutional guarantees especially the First Amendment free speech clause He was often labeled an activist because of his willingness to review legislation that arguably violated constitutional provisions Black maintained that literalism was necessary to cabin judicial power which informed his dissent in Anastaplo 50 Criminal procedure Edit Black adopted a narrower interpretation of the Fourth Amendment than many of his colleagues on the Warren Court He dissented from Katz v United States 1967 in which the court held that warrantless wiretapping violated the Fourth Amendment s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure He argued that the Fourth Amendment only protected tangible items from physical searches or seizures Thus he concluded that telephone conversations were not within the scope of the amendment and that warrantless wiretapping was consequently permissible 74 Justice Black originally believed that the Constitution did not require the exclusion of illegally seized evidence at trials In his concurrence to Wolf v Colorado 1949 he claimed that the exclusionary rule was not a command of the Fourth Amendment but a judicially created rule of evidence 75 But he later changed his mind and joined the majority in Mapp v Ohio 1961 which applied it to state as well as federal criminal investigations In his concurrence he indicated that his support was based on the Fifth Amendment s guarantee of the right against self incrimination not on the Fourth Amendment s guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures He wrote I am still not persuaded that the Fourth Amendment standing alone would be enough to bar the introduction into evidence seized in violation of its commands 76 In other instances Black took a fairly broad view of the rights of criminal defendants He joined the Supreme Court s landmark decision in Miranda v Arizona 1966 which required law enforcement officers to warn suspects of their rights prior to interrogations and consistently voted to apply the guarantees of the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Eighth Amendments at the state level citation needed Black was the author of the landmark decision in Gideon v Wainwright 1963 which ruled that the states must provide an attorney to an indigent criminal defendant who cannot afford one Before Gideon the court had held that such a requirement applied only to the federal government 77 Bill of Rights applicable to states or incorporation question Edit One of the most notable aspects of Justice Black s jurisprudence was the view that the entirety of the federal Bill of Rights was applicable to the states Originally the Bill of Rights was binding only upon the federal government as the Supreme Court ruled in Barron v Baltimore 1833 According to Black the Fourteenth Amendment ratified in 1868 incorporated the Bill of Rights or made it binding upon the states as well In particular he pointed to the Privileges or Immunities Clause No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States He proposed that the term privileges or immunities encompassed the rights mentioned in the first eight amendments to the Constitution 4 212 213 Black first expounded this theory of incorporation when the Supreme Court ruled in Adamson v California 1947 that the Fifth Amendment s guarantee against self incrimination did not apply to the states It was during this period of time that Hugo Black became a disciple of John Lilburne and his claim of freeborn rights 78 In an appendix to his dissenting opinion Justice Black analyzed statements made by those who framed the Fourteenth Amendment reaching the conclusion that the Fourteenth Amendment and particularly its privileges and immunities clause was a plain application of the Bill of Rights to the states 79 Black s theory attracted the support of Justices such as Frank Murphy and William O Douglas However it never achieved the support of a majority of the court 4 page needed The most prominent opponents of Black s theory were Justices Felix Frankfurter and John Marshall Harlan II 4 page needed Frankfurter and Harlan argued that the Fourteenth Amendment did not incorporate the Bill of Rights per se but merely protected rights that are implicit in the concept of ordered liberty which was the standard Justice Cardozo had established earlier in Palko v Connecticut citation needed The Supreme Court never accepted the argument that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the entirety of the Bill of Rights 80 However it did agree that some fundamental guarantees were made applicable to the states For the most part during the 1930s 1940s and 1950s only First Amendment rights such as free exercise of religion and freedom of speech were deemed sufficiently fundamental by the Supreme Court to be incorporated citation needed However during the 1960s the court under Chief Justice Warren took the process much further making almost all guarantees of the Bill of Rights binding upon the states 81 Thus although the court failed to accept Black s theory of total incorporation the result of its jurisprudence is very close to what Black advocated Today the only parts of the first eight amendments that have not been extended to the states are the Third and Seventh Amendments the grand jury clause of the Fifth Amendment the Eighth Amendment s protection against excessive bail and the guarantee of the Sixth Amendment as interpreted that criminal juries be composed of 12 members 82 Due process clause Edit Justice Black was well known for his rejection of the doctrine of substantive due process Most Supreme Court Justices accepted the view that the due process clause encompassed not only procedural guarantees but also fundamental fairness and fundamental rights Thus it was argued that due process included a substantive component in addition to its procedural component citation needed Black however believed that this interpretation of the due process clause was unjustifiably broad In his dissent to Griswold he charged that the doctrine of substantive due process takes away from Congress and States the power to make laws based on their own judgment of fairness and wisdom and transfers that power to this Court for ultimate determination 54 Instead Black advocated a much narrower interpretation of the clause In his dissent to In re Winship he analyzed the history of the term due process of law and concluded For me the only correct meaning of that phrase is that our Government must proceed according to the law of the land that is according to written constitutional and statutory provisions as interpreted by court decisions 83 Black s view on due process drew from his reading of British history to him due process meant all persons were to be tried in accordance with the Bill of Rights procedural guarantees and in accordance with constitutionally pursuant laws Black advocated equal treatment by the government for all persons regardless of wealth age or race Black s view of due process was restrictive in the sense that it was premised on equal procedures it did not extend to substantive due process This was in accordance with Black s literalist views 4 116 117 Black did not tie procedural due process exclusively to the Bill of Rights but he did tie it exclusively to the Bill of Rights combined with other explicit provisions of the Constitution 84 None of Black s colleagues shared his interpretation of the due process clause His chief rival on the issue and on many other issues was Felix Frankfurter who advocated a substantive view of due process based on natural law if a challenged action did not shock the conscience of the jurist or violate British concepts of fairness Frankfurter would find no violation of due process of law John M Harlan II largely agreed with Frankfurter and was highly critical of Black s view indicating his continued bafflement at Black s insistence that due process does not embody a concept of fundamental fairness in his Winship concurrence 83 Voting rights Edit No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which as good citizens we must live Other rights even the most basic are illusory if the right to vote is undermined Our Constitution leaves no room for classification of people in a way that unnecessarily abridges this right Justice Black on the right to vote as the foundation of democracy in Wesberry v Sanders 1964 85 Black was one of the Supreme Court s foremost defenders of the one man one vote principle 86 He delivered the opinion of the court in Wesberry v Sanders 1964 holding that the Constitution required congressional districts in any state to be approximately equal in population He concluded that the Constitution s command that Representatives be chosen by the People of the several States means that as nearly as is practicable one man s vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another s 87 Likewise he voted in favor of Reynolds v Sims 1964 which extended the same requirement to state legislative districts on the basis of the equal protection clause citation needed At the same time Black did not believe that the equal protection clause made poll taxes unconstitutional During his first term on the court he participated in a unanimous decision to uphold Georgia s poll tax in the case of Breedlove v Suttles 88 Then twenty nine years later he dissented from the court s ruling in Harper v Virginia Board of Elections 1966 invalidating the use of the poll tax as a qualification to vote in which Breedlove was overturned He criticized the court for exceeding its limited power to interpret the original meaning of the Equal Protection Clause and for giving that clause a new meaning which it believes represents a better governmental policy 89 He also dissented from Kramer v Union Free School District No 15 1969 in which a majority struck down a statute that prohibited registered voters from participating in certain school district elections unless they owned or rented real property in their local school district or were parents or guardians of children attending the public schools in the district 90 Equal Protection Clause Edit By the late 1940s Black believed that the Fourteenth Amendment s equal protection clause was a constitutional prohibition against any state governmental actions that discriminated on the basis of race in an invidious or capricious manner Throughout the remainder of his time on the court Black saw only race and the characteristics of alienage as the suspect categories that were addressed and protected by equal protection along with the one man one vote principle all of which merited strict scrutiny 4 118 In 1948 he participated in two court decisions that struck down certain California laws that were discriminatory towards aliens Takahashi v Fish amp Game Commission 91 he wrote the majority opinion and Oyama v California 92 he wrote a concurring opinion During his last full term on the court he participated in a unanimous decision Graham v Richardson striking down statutes that restricted welfare benefits to legal aliens but not to U S citizens The majority opinion stated C lassifications based on alienage like those based on nationality or race are inherently suspect and subject to close judicial scrutiny Aliens as a class are a prime example of a discrete and insular minority for whom such heightened judicial solicitude is appropriate 93 Consistent with his view that the equal protection clause had a limited meaning Black did not believe illegitimate children were a suspect class and he applied only rational basis review to laws that were discriminatory toward such children In 1968 he joined a dissenting opinion written by Justice Harlan in the case of Levy v Louisiana in which a majority of the court overturned a decision made by the Louisiana courts to enforce a statute that was discriminatory toward unacknowledged illegitimate children 94 95 Three years later he wrote a majority opinion for the case of Labine v Vincent 96 He reasoned that for a state to treat illegitimate children worse than legitimate children is scarcely any different than treating concubines worse than wives or treating other relatives of a person worse than any other relatives It may be possible that some of these choices are more rational than the choices inherent in Louisiana s categories of illegitimates But the power to make rules to establish protect and strengthen family life is committed by the Constitution of the United States and the people of Louisiana to the legislature of that State Absent a specific constitutional guarantee it is for that legislature not the life tenured judges of this Court to select from among possible laws 96 Black apparently did not think of homosexuals as a suspect class either voting with five other colleagues on the court to uphold the authority of the federal government to deport a gay man just because he was gay in Boutilier v Immigration and Naturalization Service 97 Retirement and death Edit The Hugo L Black United States Courthouse in Birmingham Alabama Justice Black admitted himself to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland in August 1971 and subsequently retired from the court on September 17 98 He suffered a stroke two days later and died on September 25 99 Services were held at the National Cathedral and more than 1 000 people attended Pursuant to Justice Black s wishes the coffin was simple and cheap and was displayed at the service to show that the costs of burial are not reflective of the worth of the human whose remains were present 100 His remains were interred at the Arlington National Cemetery 101 102 He is one of fourteen Supreme Court justices buried at Arlington The others are Harry Blackmun William Brennan Arthur Goldberg Thurgood Marshall Potter Stewart William O Douglas Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr John Paul Stevens Ruth Bader Ginsburg 103 Chief Justice William Howard Taft Chief Justice Earl Warren Chief Justice Warren Burger and Chief Justice William Rehnquist 104 President Richard Nixon nominated Lewis Powell to succeed Black on the Supreme Court Powell was confirmed by an 89 to 1 vote and was sworn in on January 7 1972 105 Ku Klux Klan and anti Catholicism EditShortly after Black s appointment to the Supreme Court Ray Sprigle of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote a series of articles for which he won a Pulitzer Prize revealing Black s involvement in the Klan 4 96 106 and describing his resignation from the Klan as the first move of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator from Alabama Sprigle wrote that Black and the leaders of the Klan decided it was good political strategy for Black to make the senatorial race unimpeded by Klan membership but backed by the power of the Klan That resignation was filed for the duration of the campaign but never revealed to the rank and file of the order and held secretly in the records of the Alabama Realm 106 Roosevelt denied knowledge of Black s KKK membership 107 108 In a radio statement on October 1 1937 109 Black said in part I number among my friends many members of the colored race Certainly they are entitled to the full measure of protection accorded by our Constitution and our laws 110 Black also said I did join the Klan I later resigned I never rejoined 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 I have never resumed it and never expect to do so 4 98 The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that fifty million listeners heard the unprecedented speech citation needed Near the end of his life Black said that joining the Klan was a mistake I would have joined any group if it helped get me votes 4 16 50 Biographers in the 1990s examined Black s views of religious denominations Ball found regarding the Klan that Black sympathized with the group s economic nativist and anti Catholic beliefs 4 16 Newman said Black disliked the Catholic Church as an institution and gave numerous anti Catholic speeches in his 1926 election campaign to Ku Klux Klan meetings across Alabama 111 However in 1937 The Harvard Crimson reported on Black s appointment of a Jewish law clerk noting that he earlier had appointed Miss Annie Butt a Catholic as a secretary and the Supreme Court had designated Leon Smallwood a Negro and a Catholic as his messenger 112 In the 1940s 113 Black became intrigued by the writings of Paul Blanshard 114 115 Thurgood Marshall and Brown v Board of Education Edit Black was one of the nine justices of the Supreme Court who in 1954 ruled unanimously in Brown v Board of Education that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional The plaintiffs were represented by Thurgood Marshall A decade later on October 2 1967 Marshall became the first African American to be appointed to the Supreme Court and served with Black on the court until Black s retirement on September 17 1971 United States v Price Edit In United States v Price 1965 eighteen Ku Klux Klan members were charged with murder and conspiracy for the deaths of James Chaney Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner but the charges were dismissed by the trial court A unanimous Supreme Court which included Black reversed the dismissal and ordered the case to proceed to trial Seven of these men including fellow Klansmen Samuel Bowers Cecil Price and Alton Wayne Roberts were found guilty of the crime eight of them including Lawrence A Rainey were found not guilty and three of them including Edgar Ray Killen had their cases end in a mistrial citation needed Legacy EditHugo Black was twice the subject of covers of Time magazine On August 26 1935 as a United States Senator 116 and on October 9 1964 as an associate justice art by Robert Vickrey 117 External video Profile of Hugo Black on the 25th anniversary of his death September 28 1996 C SPANIn 1986 Black appeared on the 5 postage stamp in the Great Americans series issued by the United States Postal Service Along with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr he was one of only two Associate Justices to do so until the later inclusions of Thurgood Marshall Joseph Story Louis Brandeis Felix Frankfurter and William J Brennan Jr 118 119 In 1987 Congress passed a law sponsored by Alabama representative Ben Erdreich designating the new courthouse building for the U S District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham as the Hugo L Black United States Courthouse 120 An extensive collection of Black s personal senatorial and judicial papers is archived at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress where it is open for research 121 Justice Black is honored in an exhibit in the Bounds Law Library at the University of Alabama School of Law A special Hugo Black collection is maintained by the library 122 Black served on the Supreme Court for thirty four years making him the fifth longest serving Justice in Supreme Court history He was the senior longest serving justice on the court for an unprecedented twenty five years from the death of Chief Justice Stone on April 22 1946 to his own retirement on September 17 1971 As the longest serving associate justice he was acting Chief Justice on two occasions from Stone s death until Vinson took office on June 24 1946 and from Vinson s death on September 8 1953 until Warren took office on October 5 1953 There was no interregnum between the Warren and Burger courts in 1969 citation needed See also Edit Biography portal Politics portal United States portal Law portalHugo Black House List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Seat 1 List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office United States Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Hughes Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Stone Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Vinson Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Warren CourtReferences Edit a b Justices 1789 to Present Washington D C Supreme Court of the United States Retrieved February 15 2022 a b c d Suitts Steve Hugo L Black Encyclopedia of Alabama Archived from the original on March 1 2015 Retrieved September 25 2020 Newman Hugo Black pp 195 209 228 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw Ball Howard Hugo L Black Cold Steel Warrior Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0 19 507814 4 The Digs Pittsburgh Post Gazette Photo The Digs Pittsburgh Post Gazette Archived from the original on March 17 2018 Retrieved July 7 2017 I Quit Klan Black s Defense Chicago Tribune October 2 1937 Archived from the original on August 31 2016 Retrieved July 7 2017 Henry J Abraham Justices and Presidents A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court 1992 List of Justices on the U S Supreme Court Archived from the original on January 10 2006 Retrieved April 29 2008 Hugo L Black Oyez Baude William The greatness of Justice Hugo Black The Washington Post Retrieved April 10 2022 Cohen Adam February 23 2021 Supreme Inequality p 19 ISBN 9780735221529 Retrieved April 10 2022 Hugo Black of Alabama How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution NewSouth Books December 2018 ISBN 9781588383976 Black Hugo Lafayette Federal Judicial Center Archived from the original on August 9 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Leonhart James Chancellor 1962 The Fabulous Octogenarian Baltimore Maryland Redwood House Inc p 139 Armbrester Margaret E 1992 The Civitan Story Birmingham AL Ebsco Media p 56 a b c Van Der Veer Virginia April 1968 Hugo Black and the K K K American Heritage 19 3 Archived from the original on August 23 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 a b Reimann Matt August 15 2017 A U S Supreme Court justice was in the Ku Klux Klan and he remained on the bench for 34 years Timeline com San Francisco CA Medium Corporation Archived from the original on February 8 2021 Retrieved September 22 2021 Yoder Edwin M Jr March 16 1986 Justice Black At Home The Washington Post Retrieved September 25 2020 Book review of Mr Justice and Mrs Black The Memoirs of Hugo L Black and Elizabeth Black Carr Adam Direct Elections to the United States Senate 1914 98 Archived from the original on February 16 2006 Retrieved February 18 2006 U S Senate Lobbyists senate gov Archived from the original on September 1 2017 Retrieved February 16 2018 Black Describes Lobby Inquiry Tells Radio Audience You Will Pay Bill in Increased Utility Rates Chronicling America Library of Congress August 9 1935 Archived from the original on August 2 2020 Retrieved August 11 2019 a b c U S Department of Labor History Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Dol gov Archived from the original on March 21 2019 Retrieved March 21 2019 Foes Seek to Block Mob Law The Evening Independent St Petersburg Florida November 15 1937 p 22 Archived from the original on March 12 2016 Retrieved March 22 2014 Baker Bruce E 2007 What Reconstruction Meant Historical Memory in the American South University of Virginia Press p 99 ISBN 978 0813926605 Archived from the original on May 3 2021 Retrieved March 22 2014 Pittsburgh Post Gazette Archived from the original on May 3 2021 Retrieved September 3 2020 via Google News Archive Search Senate Quickly Confirms Reed Nomination The New York Times January 26 1938 Archived from the original on August 18 2020 Retrieved April 23 2020 Ariens Michael Sherman Minton biography Archived from the original on July 14 2010 Retrieved April 26 2010 a b McMillion Barry J March 8 2022 Supreme Court Nominations 1789 to 2020 Actions by the Senate the Judiciary Committee and the President PDF Report Washington D C Congressional Research Service Retrieved April 3 2022 Leuchtenburg William E Fall 1973 A Klansman Joins the Court The Appointment of Hugo L Black University of Chicago Law Review 41 1 1 31 doi 10 2307 1599085 JSTOR 1599085 S2CID 158225420 Archived from the original on September 24 2020 Retrieved September 3 2020 Hamm Andrew October 9 2018 A look back at Justice Hugo Black s first day on the bench SCOTUSblog Archived from the original on October 14 2018 Retrieved October 14 2018 G Edward White The Constitution and the New Deal 2002 Wood Sandra L 1997 In the Shadow of the Chief The Role of the Senior Associate Justice Journal of Supreme Court History 1997 25 doi 10 1111 j 1540 5818 1997 tb00109 x S2CID 145064343 Roger K Newman Hugo Black pp 333 334 Rehnquist William H 1987 The Supreme Court New York Knopf ISBN 0 688 05714 4 a b Salt of the Earth Conscience of the Court By John M Ferren Wiley Rutledge p 325 UNC Press Robert A Caro The Years of Lyndon Johnson Means of Ascent pp 379 384 Caro Robert A 1990 The Years of Lyndon Johnson Means of Ascent New York Vintage Books ISBN 978 0 679 73371 3 Laura Kalman 1990 Abe Fortas Yale University Press ISBN 0300173695 Archived from the original on December 26 2011 Retrieved October 20 2008 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on February 6 2006 Retrieved February 18 2006 Engel v Vitale Tourolaw edu Archived from the original on September 5 2008 Retrieved September 6 2008 Hungry for a Spiritual Revival The School Prayer Amendment and the Rise of the New Right CAFE December 16 2021 Retrieved April 20 2022 Lucas A Powe The Warren Court and American Politics 2000 July 13 Tony Mauro Journal 2020 at 02 56 pm The original version of this story was published on The National Law When Supreme Court Clerkships Become a Family Tradition National Law Journal Archived from the original on July 14 2020 Retrieved July 16 2020 Archived copy PDF Archived PDF from the original on March 1 2021 Retrieved July 16 2020 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Schwartz Bernard 1996 The Warren Court A Retrospective Oxford Oxfordshire Oxford Press p 195 ISBN 0 19 510439 0 Cray Ed 1997 Chief Justice A Biography of Earl Warren New York Simon and Schuster pp 316 317 ISBN 0 684 80852 8 Tushnet Mark V 1993 The Warren Court in historical and political perspective Charlottesville University Press of Virginia p 105 ISBN 0 8139 1459 0 Gerhardt Michael J A Tale of Two Textualists William and Mary Law School Retrieved May 10 2022 Magee James 1980 Mr Justice Black Absolutist on the Court Charlottesville University of Virginia Press ISBN 0 8139 0784 5 a b Hugo L Black Official Supreme Court media at Archived September 1 2017 at the Wayback Machine Oyez org Bork Robert 1990 The Tempting of America p 72 Simon amp Schuster New York Magee James J 1980 Mr Justice Black Absolutism on the Supreme Court p 194 Charlottesville University Press of Virginia U S News amp World Report volume 63 1967 p 38 a b FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on February 8 2006 Retrieved February 18 2006 Strauss The Death of Judicial Conservatism 4 Duke Journal of Constitutional Law amp Public Policy 1 4 2009 Justice Hugo Black 1886 1971 Constituting America constitutingamerica org Retrieved May 19 2022 Yarbrough Tinsley 1987 The Constitutional Faith of Mr Justice Black Journal of Political Science 15 1 ISSN 0098 4612 Black railed against judges who would substitute their policy judgments for the Constitution s language and the intent of its framers At one point or another all jurists cite language and historical intent in defending their interpretations of constitutional provisions But arguably no other American judge has been as consistent committed and sincere an apostle of interpretivism as Justice Black was Guido Calabresi Forward Antidiscrimination and Constitutional Accountability What the Bork Brennan Debate Ignores 105 Harvard Law Review 80 132 1991 Roger K Newman Hugo Black page 435 Breithaupt v Abram Findlaw Retrieved October 12 2022 Mr Justice Black and His Critics By Tinsley E Yarbrough p 44 Duke University Press FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on June 23 2006 Retrieved February 18 2006 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on March 2 2006 Retrieved February 20 2006 Schlesinger Arthur Jr The Age of Roosevelt Vol III 437 Houghton Mifflin 1988 ISBN 0 618 34087 4 Schwartz Bernard Super Chief 1983 p 630 Hamm v Rock Hill 379 U S 306 318 1964 Black J dissenting See also Bell v Maryland 378 U S 226 318 1964 Black J dissenting Adderley v Fla 385 U S 39 1966 Black J Brown v Louisiana Newman Hugo Black p 550 Joshua E Kastenberg Hugo Black s Vision of the Lawyer the First Amendment and the Duty of the Judiciary The Bar Applicant Cases in a National Security State 20 William amp Mary Bill of Rights Journal 661 2012 In re George Anastaplo Petitioner Open Jurist United States Supreme Court US 366 82 December 14 1960 Archived from the original on October 21 2013 Retrieved June 25 2013 Loren P Beth Mr Justice Black and the First Amendment Comments on the Dilemma of Constitutional Interpretation Journal of Politics November 1979 Vol 41 Issue 4 pp 1105 1124 New York Times Co v United States 403 U S 713 714 1971 Black J concurring Archived July 10 2011 at the Wayback Machine FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on September 16 2011 Retrieved February 18 2006 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on March 23 2007 Retrieved February 18 2006 Landynski Jacob W 1976 1977 In Search of Justice Black s Fourth Amendment Fordham Law Review 45 453 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on January 2 2005 Retrieved February 18 2006 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on July 17 2014 Retrieved February 18 2006 Betts v Brady 316 U S 455 1942 John Lilburne The Pedigree of America s Constitution An Alternative Explanation Gilder Eric and Hagger Mervyn British and American Studies University of the West Timișoara 14 2008 217 226 John Lilburne Research Institute Reference Hugo L Black and John Lilburne Archived from the original on August 28 2010 Retrieved August 24 2010 Retrieved June 24 2010 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on August 9 2011 Retrieved February 19 2006 The Fourteenth Amendment and the Incorporation Debate Law umkc edu Archived from the original on October 19 2008 Retrieved September 6 2008 The Supreme Court Under Earl Warren 1953 1969 Bsos umd edu Archived from the original on August 12 2009 Retrieved September 6 2008 BRI Billofrightsinstitute org Archived from the original on August 3 2008 Retrieved September 6 2008 a b FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on June 17 2006 Retrieved February 18 2006 Wiecek William 2006 The birth of the modern Constitution the United States Supreme Court 1941 1953 p 517 ISBN 978 0521848206 Archived from the original on January 14 2014 Retrieved February 19 2016 Wesberry v Sanders 376 U S 1 1964 at 17 18 Justia US Supreme Court Center February 17 1964 Archived from the original on January 7 2021 Retrieved January 5 2021 Hugo Black By Roger K Newman Fordham University Press p 575 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on May 2 2006 Retrieved February 18 2006 Breedlove v Suttles 302 U S 277 1937 Archived from the original on August 28 2017 Retrieved August 27 2017 FindLaw s United States Supreme Court case and opinions Findlaw Archived from the original on January 17 2005 Retrieved February 18 2006 Kramer v Union Free Sch Dist No 15 395 U S 621 1969 Archived from the original on August 28 2017 Retrieved August 27 2017 Takahashi v Fish amp Game Commission 334 U S 410 1948 Archived from the original on October 27 2021 Retrieved October 15 2021 Oyama v California 332 U S 633 Archived from the original on October 27 2021 Retrieved October 15 2021 Graham v Richardson 403 U S 365 1971 Archived from the original on July 28 2020 Retrieved August 7 2020 Levy v Louisiana 391 U S 68 1968 Glona v American Guarantee amp Liability Insurance Co 391 U S 77 1968 a b Labine v Vincent 401 U S 532 1971 Boutilier v Immigrantion and Naturalization Service 387 U S 118 1967 Black had signed an undated letter of resignation on August 26 the day before his August 27 admission to Bethesda The letter was delivered to President Nixon by Black s messenger on September 17 Bob Woodward Scott Armstrong 1981 The Brethren inside the Supreme Court Avon Books pp 183 184 ISBN 978 0 380 52183 8 Archived from the original on March 23 2017 Retrieved February 19 2016 Hugo Black Suffers Stroke Condition Listed as Serious The New York Times September 23 1971 Archived from the original on May 3 2021 Retrieved October 2 2020 Pesaresi Josephine Black Simple and Cheap My Father Said Monday 26 November 2007 Archived April 2 2010 at the Wayback Machine Funeral Consumers Alliance Christensen George A 1983 Here Lies the Supreme Court Gravesites of the Justices Archived from the original on September 3 2005 Retrieved November 24 2013 Yearbook Supreme Court Historical Society Christensen George A 2008 Here Lies the Supreme Court Revisited Journal of Supreme Court History 33 1 17 41 doi 10 1111 j 1540 5818 2008 00177 x S2CID 145227968 The late Ruth Bader Ginsburg buried at Arlington Cemetery Tuesday September 29 2020 Archived from the original on October 5 2020 Retrieved October 15 2020 Notable Graves Supreme Court Arlington National Cemetery Archived from the original on December 3 2020 Retrieved December 2 2020 Biskupic Joan Barbash Fred August 26 1998 Retired Justice Lewis Powell Dies at 90 The Washington Post Retrieved April 3 2022 a b The Digs Pittsburgh Post Gazette Archived from the original on March 17 2018 Retrieved November 8 2016 FDR Press Conference 398 PDF September 14 1937 Archived PDF from the original on February 14 2017 Retrieved November 8 2016 via FDR Presidential Library amp Museum Roger Daniels 2015 Franklin D Roosevelt Road to the New Deal 1882 1939 University of Illinois Press p 381 ISBN 978 0 252 09762 1 Archived from the original on February 18 2020 Retrieved August 29 2018 Justice Hugo Black admits his membership in Ku Klux Klan in an address to the nation through radio in Washington D C video criticalpast com Archived from the original on November 9 2016 Retrieved November 8 2016 The Supreme Court Transcript PBS PBS Archived from the original on September 1 2017 Retrieved November 8 2016 Roger K Newman Hugo Black A Biography 1997 pp 87 104 See Harvard Jew Appointed by Hugo Black To Be Law Clerk Archived September 14 2013 at the Wayback Machine The Harvard Crimson October 5 1937 Retrieved March 22 2014 Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State The Political Theology of Justice Hugo Black No Establishment of Religion America s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty Hugo La Fayette Black Time August 26 1935 Cover Archived from the original on August 30 2010 Retrieved August 27 2011 Justice Black Time October 9 1964 Cover Archived from the original on July 13 2007 Retrieved August 27 2011 Supreme Court Justices Honored on Stamp Souvenir Sheet Archived from the original on February 24 2011 United States Postal Service Philatelic News Archived from the original on February 7 2010 H R 614 Archived April 8 2016 at the Wayback Machine Library of Congress manuscripts catalog Hugo Black papers Library of Congress Archived from the original on May 3 2008 Bounds Law Library Hugo Black special collection Archived from the original on July 23 2008 Further reading EditAbraham Henry J Justices and Presidents A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court 3d ed Oxford Oxfordshire Oxford University Press 1992 ISBN 0 19 506557 3 Atkins Burton M Sloope Terry 1986 The New Hugo Black and the Warren Court Polity 18 4 621 637 doi 10 2307 3234885 JSTOR 3234885 S2CID 155514353 Argues that in the 1960s Black moved to the right on cases involving civil liberties civil rights and economic liberalism Ball Howard Cooper Phillip 1994 Fighting Justices Hugo L Black and William O Douglas and Supreme Court Conflict American Journal of Legal History 38 1 1 37 doi 10 2307 845321 JSTOR 845321 Ball Howard 1992 Of Power and Right Hugo Black William O Douglas and America s Constitutional Revolution Oxford Oxfordshire Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 504612 0 Ball Howard 1996 Hugo L Black Cold Steel Warrior Oxford Oxfordshire Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 507814 4 Ball Howard and Phillip J Cooper 1992 Of Power and Right Hugo Black William O Douglas and America s Constitutional Revolution New York Oxford University Press Ball Howard 1975 The Vision and the Dream of Justice Hugo L Black An Examination of a Judicial Philosophy University AL University of Alabama Press Belknap Michael The Supreme Court Under Earl Warren 1953 1969 2005 406 pp excerpt and text search Cushman Clare The Supreme Court Justices Illustrated Biographies 1789 1995 2nd ed Supreme Court Historical Society Congressional Quarterly Books 2001 ISBN 978 1 56802 126 3 Dunne Gerald T 1977 Hugo Black and the Judicial Revolution New York Simon amp Schuster Frank John Paul 1949 Mr Justice Black the Man and His Opinions New York Alfred A Knopf Frank John Paul The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Leon Friedman and Fred L Israel editors Chelsea House Publishers 1995 ISBN 978 0 7910 1377 9 Freyer Tony Allen 1990 Hugo L Black and the Dilemma of American Liberalism Glenview IL Scott Foresman ISBN 978 0 8173 1194 0 Freyer Tony Allan ed 1990 Justice Hugo Black and Modern America Tuscaloosa AL University of Alabama Press ISBN 0 8173 1194 7 Hall Kermit L ed The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States Oxford Oxfordshire Oxford University Press 1992 ISBN 0 19 505835 6 Hamilton Virginia Van der Veer 1972 Hugo Black The Alabama Years Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press Hockett Jeffrey D 1992 Justices Frankfurter and Black Social Theory and Constitutional Interpretation Political Science Quarterly 107 3 479 499 doi 10 2307 2152441 JSTOR 2152441 Hockett Jeffrey D 1996 New Deal Justice The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Hugo L Black Felix Frankfurther and Robert H Jackson Lanham MD Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers ISBN 978 0 8476 8210 2 Magee James J 1980 Mr Justice Black Absolutist of the Court Charlottesville University Press of Virginia ISBN 1 58838 144 7 Mendelson Wallace 1961 Justices Black and Frankfurter Conflict in the Court Chicago University of Chicago Press Newman Roger K 1994 Hugo Black A Biography New York Pantheon Books ISBN 978 0 8232 1786 1 0 679 43180 2 Pritchett C Herman Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court The University of Chicago Press 1969 ISBN 978 0 226 68443 7 Silverstein Mark 1984 Constitutional Faiths Felix Frankfurter Hugo Black and the Process of Judicial Decision Making Ithaca Cornell University Press Simon James F 1989 The Antagonists Hugo Black Felix Frankfurter and Civil Liberties in America New York Simon amp Schuster Strickland Stephen Parks ed 1967 Hugo Black and the Supreme Court A Symposium Indianapolis Bobbs Merrill Suitts Steve 2005 Hugo Black of Alabama Montgomery AL New South Books ISBN 1 58838 144 7 Urofsky Melvin I Division and Discord The Supreme Court under Stone and Vinson 1941 1953 University of South Carolina Press 1997 ISBN 1 57003 120 7 Urofsky Melvin I The Supreme Court Justices A Biographical Dictionary New York Garland Publishing 1994 590 pp ISBN 978 0 8153 1176 8 Williams Charlotte 1950 Hugo L Black A Study in the Judicial Process Baltimore Johns Hopkins Press Woodward Robert and Armstrong Scott The Brethren Inside the Supreme Court 1979 ISBN 978 0 380 52183 8 978 0 671 24110 0 978 0 7432 7402 9 Yarbrough Tinsley E 1971 Mr Justice Black and Legal Positivism Virginia Law Review 57 3 375 407 doi 10 2307 1072096 JSTOR 1072096 Yarbrough Tinsley E 1989 Mr Justice Black and His Critics Durham NC Duke University Press Primary sources Edit Black Hugo L 1968 A Constitutional Faith New York Knopf Black Hugo L and Elizabeth Black 1985 Mr Justice Black and Mrs Black The Memoirs of Hugo L Black and Elizabeth Black New York Random House ISBN 978 0 394 54432 8 Black Hugo L Mr Justice Murphy 48 Michigan Law Review 739 1950 Black Hugo Jr 1975 My Father A Remembrance New York Random House External links EditHugo Black at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource United States Congress Hugo Black id B000499 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Hugo Lafayette Black at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center Ariens Michael Hugo Black Fox John Capitalism and Conflict Biographies of the Robes Hugo Black Public Broadcasting Service Goldman Jeremy Hugo L Black Oyez Project Suitts Steve Hugo Black Encyclopedia of Alabama Supreme Court Historical Society Hugo L Black Hugo Black of Alabama How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution Library of Congress John W Kluge Center Video of Steve Suitts discussing his book Hugo Black of Alabama Pesaresi Josephine Black Simple and Cheap My Father Said preparations for her father s funeral Reich Charles A 2010 A Passion for Justice PDF Touro Law Review 26 393 431 ANC Explorer FBI file on Hugo Black at vault fbi gov Newspaper clippings about Hugo Black in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBWParty political officesPreceded byOscar Underwood Democratic nominee for U S Senator from Alabama Class 3 1926 1932 Succeeded byLister HillPreceded byWilliam H King Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference1927 1937 Succeeded byJoshua B LeeU S SenatePreceded byOscar Underwood U S Senator Class 3 from Alabama1927 1937 Served alongside Thomas Heflin John Bankhead Succeeded byDixie GravesNew office Chair of the Senate Lobby Investigation Committee1935 1937 Succeeded bySherman MintonPreceded byDavid Walsh Chair of the Senate Education Committee1937 Succeeded byElbert ThomasLegal officesPreceded byWillis Van Devanter Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States1937 1971 Succeeded byLewis Powell Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hugo Black amp oldid 1140284493, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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