Democratic Justice, page 137
600
walked in: EBP Int. with author, 7/20/2012.
600
$1000 & papers: RHJ, Last Will and Testament, 12/26/1952, at 1–2, RHJP, Box 241, Folder 3.
600
11:45 a.m.: ED Calendar, 10/9/1954, RHJP, Box 207, Folder 6.
600
four and a half: WP, 10/10/1954, at 1.
600
J. Edgar Hoover: Walter Trohan, Political Animals, 406 (1975); Feldman, Scorpions, 403–4 (insinuating, presumably based on his interview with EBP, that FF may have concocted the story about going to Sears and being near her apartment). The facts are not as far-fetched as they initially seem. Sears, located at 4500 Wisconsin Avenue, was 6.1 miles from RHJ’s McLean home Hickory Hill via Chain Bridge Road and may have been one of the closer shopping areas at the time. ED’s apartment at 4201 Massachusetts Avenue was 1.2 miles from Sears. Regardless of whether the story was true, his death in ED’s apartment was an embarrassing fact in light of their long-rumored affair. There is no reason to doubt EBP’s recollection that FF phoned him and said “we’ve got a problem.”
600
convened briefly: WP, 10/12/1954, at 18.
600
funeral & pallbearers: WP, 10/13/1954, at 18; WES, 10/13/1954, at A-3.
600
“All of Jamestown”: FF to CCB, 10/27/1954, at 1, CCBP, Box 5, Folder 5-13.
600
“preference” & “He liked”: FF, Foreword, 55 Colum. L. Rev. 435, 436 (1955).
601
turned: Manchester Guardian, 10/11/1954, at 5.
601
“nervous” & “not in good” & “somewhat”: WP, 10/14/1954, at 71.
601
labored: FF to AMB, 6/2/1955, at 2, FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 31, Page 949.
601
“Justice Jackson wrote” & “style sometimes” & “No man” & “temper” & “Deeper” & “Solicitor General” & Nuremberg: FF, “Mr. Justice Jackson,” 68 Harv. L. Rev. 937, 938–39 (1955).
601
“the key”: FF to PE, 7/18/1953, at 1, PEP, Box 2, Folder 58.
601
“the most satisfying”: RHJ COH at 1475, RHJP, Box 191, Folder 2.
601
“had a profound” & “how ultimately” & “His voice”: FF, Foreword, 55 Colum. L. Rev. at 437.
602
“the oasis”: FF to LH, 11/5/1954, at 1–2, LHP, Box 105C, Folder 105-20.
602
“a self-righteous” & “largely vegetable” & “the most cynical”: Id. at 2.
602
“a purity”: Id. at 2–3.
602–603
“very friendly” & “gives”: Id. at 3.
603
“the best”: Id. at 3–4.
603
“would have”: Id. at 4. See FF to LH, 9/16/1955, at 1–2, LHP, Box 105C, Folder 105-21 (describing EW as upgrade over HFS and FMV because EW was “a straightforward, honorable character” who “behaves as the head of our Court should”).
603
team of six clerks: Outline-Segregation Research Project, n.d., EBPP, Box 2.
603
November 17: “Segregation Research Report,” 11/17/1955, FFHLS, Pt. II, Reel 4, Pages 592–676.
603
“virtually”: Gordon B. Davidson et al., “Supreme Court Law Clerks’ Recollections of Brown v. Board of Education II,” 79 St. John’s L. Rev. 823, 840 (2005).
603
From the outset: FF to CCB, 10/27/1954, at 2.
603
John Marshall Harlan II: 101 Cong. Rec. 3012 (1955); Tinsley E. Yarbrough, John Marshall Harlan (1992); Norman Dorsen, “John Marshall Harlan and the Warren Court,” The Warren Court in Historical and Political Perspective, 109–22 (Mark Tushnet, ed. 1993).
604
turned to other friends: FF to LH, 10/15/1954, LHP, Box 105C, Folder 105-20.
604
“outstanding”: LH to FF, 10/18/1954, id. See FF to CCB, 11/5/1954, at 1 (relaying endorsement to EW).
604
“direct slur”: NYT, 2/9/1955, at 37.
604
“Communist” & “one-worlder”: Brad Snyder, “How the Conservatives Canonized Brown v. Board of Education,” 52 Rutgers L. Rev. 383, 401 (2000).
604
Frankfurter wished: FF to JMH, 1/3/1955, at 1–2, JMHP, Box 532.
604
“should change” & “To lay” & “No sir”: Nomination of John Marshall Harlan: Hearings Before the Senate Comm. On the Judiciary, 84th Cong. 140 (1955).
604
horned-rim: Newsweek, 3/21/1955, at 29.
604
71–11: 101 Cong. Rec. 3036 (1955).
604
well mannered & grandfather: FF to CCB, 4/25/1955, at 1, CCBP, Box 5, Folder 5-14.
605
“the ‘liberals’ ” & “undeserved”: FF to CCB, 5/9/1955, at 2, id. See FF, “John Marshall and the Judicial Function, 69 Harv. L. Rev. 217, 230 (1955) (contrasting the Plessy line with the first Justice Harlan’s opinion in Cummings).
605
“John will carry” & “I miss”: FF to LH, 5/10/1955, at 1, LHP, Box 105C, Folder 105-20.
605
“to uphold” and “obey”: DDE, press conference, 5/19/1954, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-454 & NYT, 5/20/1954, at 1.
605
“moderate”: DDE to Hazlett, 10/23/1954, at 3, Hazlett Papers, DDEL, Box 2.
605
“there” & “Let us” & “No” & “No”: Brown II Oral Argument, 4/12/1955, Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States, Vol. 49A, at 1168.
605
“white parents”: Id. at 1185–86.
605
“it is interesting”: Id. at 1196. See Davidson et al., “Supreme Court Law Clerks’ Recollections of Brown v. Board of Education II,” 79 St. John’s L. Rev. at 866–67, 869–70 (SFR clerk Gordon Davidson recalling Virginia’s argument and Marshall’s response); id., at 868–69, 872 (EW clerk Earl Pollock recalling how “angry” EW was at exchange).
605
since February: FF, “Attached are four possible decrees,” 2/1955, FFLC, Box 219; FF, Memorandum on the Segregation Decree,” 2/10/1955, id.
605–606
“ ‘bare’ ” & “some” & “Platitude”: FF, “Memorandum on the Segregation Decree,” 4/14/1954, at 1–3, id.
606
“tentative” & “From what”: FF to EW, n.d., “Thursday,” at 1–2, id.
606
Warren & “should”: HHB Brown II Conference Notes, at 1–2, HHBP, Box 251, Folder 9. See FF Brown II Conference Notes, at 1, FFLC, Box 219; WOD Brown II Conference Notes, 4/16/1955, at 1–2, WODP, Box 1150.
606
Black & “Nothing”: EW Brown II Conference Notes, at 2, EWP, Box 574, Folder 3. See FF Brown II Conference Notes, at 2; HHB Brown II Conference Notes, at 2.
606
Reed & no mention: HHB Brown II Conference Notes, at 3–4.
606
Frankfurter & “by all” & “this is”: EW Brown II Conference Notes, at 3. See HHB Brown II Conference Notes, at 4–5; WOD Brown II Conference Notes, 4/16/1955, at 4 (“he now says he filibustered this problem under Vinson for fear that the case would be decided the other way Under Vinson!!”).
606
Douglas & no deadline & remedy: EW Brown II Conference Notes, at 5.
606
Burton: FF Brown II Conference Notes, at 3 & EW Brown II Conference Notes, at 6.
607
Clark & “careful” & Minton & “big” & Harlan & struck: FF Brown II Conference Notes, at 3–4.
607
“as simple” & “guideposts” & “maximum”: EW, Brown II “Memorandum,” 4/28/1955, at 1, EWP, Box 574, Folder 3.
607
“in good-faith”: FF comments on EW Draft, n.d., at 3, id.
607
“with all”: FF Comments on EW Draft, 4/28/1955, at 3 (FF handwritten) (including citation to Virginia v. West Virginia). See “Decree # 2,” n.d., at 2, FFLC, Box 219 (FF handwritten).
607
English Chancery: Virginia v. West Virginia, 222 U.S. 17, 20 (1911). OWH to Pollock, 3/7/1909, Mark DeWolfe Howe, ed., Holmes-Pollock Letters, Vol. 1 152 (1941); FF to PAF, 7/22/1958, FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 38, Page 207; FF to AMB, 9/4/1958, id., Reel 32, Page 410; NYHT, 9/26/1958, at 14 (reprinting letter from FF to Doyle Hennessy) (not finding it in English Chancery, but denying “The Hound of Heaven” as source).
607
“And unperturbed”: Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven” (1893).
607
began drafting: “Revised Statement (Prepared by Gerry Gunther),” 5/18/1954, EWP, Box 574, Folder 3; “Memo: C.J.’s Draft,” 5/23/1954, id.
607
“at the earliest” & “with all”: FF to EW, 5/24/1954, id.
607–608
“I still strongly” & the nearest” & “I think”: FF to EW, 5/27/1955, id.
608
Frankfurter’s dismay: FF to LH, 9/8/1957, LHP, Box 105D, Folder 105-23.
608
“racial discrimination”: Brown v. Board of Educ. II, 349 U.S. 294, 298 (1955).
608
“practical” & “public” & “personal” & “the courts” & “to take such”: Id. at 300–301. See EW reading copy, EWP, Box 574, Folder 3.
608
“The harvest”: FF to EW, 5/31/1954, at 1–2, id.
608
fall guy: Richard Kluger, Simple Justice, 742–44 (1976) (portraying EW as having been duped by FF); Bernard Schwartz, Super Chief, 123–24 (1983) (claiming EW believed he had been “sold a bill of goods” by FF in Brown II); Mark Tushnet, Making Civil Rights Law, 229–31 (1994) (arguing HLB and WOD, not FF, were “right” in Brown II to call for immediate token integration of named plaintiffs); Michael Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, 315–20 (2004) (contrasting FF’s approach with HLB’s); Lucas A. Powe, Jr., The Warren Court and American Politics, 55 (2000) (describing FF as “gradualism’s most ardent supporter”); Michal R. Belknap, The Supreme Court under Earl Warren, 1953–1969, at 41 (2005) (arguing Brown II “failed miserably” because of “all deliberate speed”); Mark Tushnet with Katya Lezin, “What Really Happened in Brown v. Board of Education,” 91 Colum. L. Rev. 1867, 1884 (1991) (“the failure of the nation to resolve its problems of race relations can be laid to some degree at Frankfurter’s door. The gradualism he favored, it seems, evidently failed, in part because there were fewer ‘good Southerners’ than Frankfurter believed there were.”).
609
air conditioning & Marion’s health: FF to CCB, 10/26/1955, at 1–2, CCBP, Box 5, Folder 5-14; FF to PBK, 1/5/1955, PBKP, Box 14, Folder 1; FF to Wilmarth Lewis, 2/26/1955, at 1–2. FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 29, Pages 662–63; FF to Lewis, 6/4/1955, at 1, id. at 668; FF to Lewis, 8/18/1955, at 2, id. at 670; FF to GC, 6/8/1955, at 1–2, id., Reel 15, Pages 223–24; MDF to Bob [Szold], 9/14/1956, Gates Family Papers.
609
“to turn”: MDF to IB, circa 1953, at 1, IBP, Box 136, Page 442.
609
“so naïve” & “doubtful”: MDF to IB, circa 11/1953, at 1–2, id., Page 299.
610
“sensitiveness”: MDF to IB, circa 1953, at 2, id., Page 445.
610
Berlin’s visits: IB to “Dearest Mama,” 12/21/1955, Enlightening, at 516 (Henry Hardy and Jennifer Holmes, eds. 2009) (seeing FF and bedridden MDF and observing “she could get up, but obviously doesn’t want to: wants to remain alone in a room forever”) (emphasis in original).
610
“I see”: MDF to IB, circa 11/1953, at 1.
610
Friends: EFP to IB, 3/11/1953, at 1–2, IBP, Box 133, Page 538.
610
“the feeling” & “more”: JA to IB, circa 1953, at 4–5, IBP, Box 239, Pages 68–69.
610
phone calls: MDF to IB, circa 1953, at 1, IBP, Box 136, Page 444.
610
“as happy”: FF to CCB, 10/26/1955, at 2.
611
“the Court” & “institutional” & “the Court”: FF to law clerks, 2/2/1955, at 1, FFHLS, Pt. III, Reel 7, Page 1.
611
Richardson’s response: Richardson to FF, 2/18/1955, at 1–2, id., Pages 8–9; FF to Richardson, 2/23/1955, at 1, id. at Page 11. See id. at Pages 3–189 (clerks’ responses).
611
immersed: FF to LH, 8/30/1955, at 2, LHP, Box 105C, Folder 105-21; FF to LH, 9/16/1955, at 2.
611
“hardheaded” & “deep” & “ambiguously” & “vitally”: FF, “John Marshall and the Judicial Function,” 69 Harv. L. Rev. 217, 222–23 (1955). See David S. Schwartz, The Spirit of the Constitution, 9–23, 229–30 (2019) (Marshall’s “defensive” nationalism in McCulloch and the link between McCulloch’s “capable Constitution” and Brown).
611
“Only” & “are precisely” & “inconclusive” & “not for” & “vagueness” & “make”: FF, “John Marshall and the Judicial Function,” 69 Harv. L. Rev. at 228–29.
612
“courts” & Ashwander & Dred Scott & the Sixteenth Amendment & West Coast Hotel: Id. at 234–35.
612
“an old-fashioned” & “the humane” & “the limited” & “the pervasiveness” & “release” & “If judges”: Id. at 237–38.
612
Lamberth: Naim-Lamberth Marriage Record, 7/26/1952, NC Marriage Records, 1741–201l, RG 48; Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, 321–23; Gregory Michael Dorr, “Principled Expediency: Eugenics, Naim v. Naim, and the Supreme Court,” 42 Am. J. L. Hist. (April 1998): 119–59; Peter Wallenstein, “Race, Marriage, and the Law of Freedom: Alabama and Virginia 1860s–1960s,” 70 Chi-Kent. L. Rev. 371 (1994).
613
“from enacting”: Naim v. Naim, 87 S.E. 2d 749, 756 Va. (1955).
613
declined & Linnie Jackson: Jackson v. Alabama, No. 118 Misc., O.T. 1954, Cert petition, FFHLS, Pt. II, Reel 14, Pages 796–97; OT 1954 Conference List, 11/20/1954, id., at Page 914; Conference List, 11/13/1954, id., at Page 918 (originally considered); WOD Jackson Docket Book, O.T. 1954, WODP, Box 1155 (noting HLB, WOD, and EW voted to grant and FF and four others voted to deny); EW Jackson Docket Book, O.T. 1954, EWP, Box 368, Folder 4.
613
two years: Jet Magazine, 3/4/1954, at 15.
613
denied: 348 U.S. 888 (11/22/1954).
613
“big mistake”: Norman I. Silber, With All Deliberate Speed, 245–46 (2004).
613
“So far” & “substantial”: FF, “Memorandum Read to Conference on Naim v. Naim,” 11/4/1955, at 1, FFLC, Box 219 (FF handwritten: read at conference on 11/4).
613–614
“a Court” & “deep” & “moral” & “the issue” & “moral” & “the enforcement” & “very seriously”: Id. at 2–3. On FF’s cautious approach to racial issues in state courts in 1955, see Williams v. Georgia, 349 U.S. 375, 376–91 (1955); Del Dickson, “State Court Defiance and the Limits of Supreme Court Authority,” 103 Yale L.J. 1423 (1994).
614
Frankfurter and four: WOD Naim Docket Book, OT 1955, Box 1163 & EW Naim Docket Book O.T. 1955, Box 369, Folder 1 & HHB Naim Docket Book O.T. 1955, HHBP, Box 264, Folder 13.
614
“subsidiary”: FF, “Memorandum Read to Conference on Naim v. Naim,” at 3 (FF handwritten).
614
Burton raised: Law clerk William Norris to WOD, “Supplemental Memo, n.d., WODP, Box 1165.
614
raised by Clark: TCC, Handwritten Note, n.d., TCCP, Box A47, Folder 3.
614
“the shortest”: FF to TCC, n.d., at 1, TCCP, Box A47, Folder 3.
614
“inadequacy” & “the failure” & “ ‘in clean-cut’ ” & “for action”: Naim v. Naim, 350 U.S. 891, 891 (November 14, 1955) (mem.) (per curiam) (quoting Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 331 U.S. 549, 584 (1947)).
614
“The decree”: Naim v. Naim, 90 S.E. 2d 849, 850 (Va. 1956) (per curiam).
614
“Did”: WP, 1/23/1956, at 16.
615
“sought” & “deftly”: Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/19/1956, at 12.
615
held the case: FF Conference Lists OT 1955, FFHLS, Pt. II, Reel 20, Page 616.
615
voted five: EW Naim Docket Book & WOD Naim Docket Book.
615
“leaves”: Naim v. Naim, 350 U.S. 985, 985 (March 12, 1956) (mem.).
615
University of Alabama: Lucy v. Adams, 350 U.S. 1 (1955) (per curiam).
615
beaches and bathhouses: Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City v. Dawson, 350 U.S. 877 (1955) (per curiam).
615
municipal golf: Holmes v. City of Atlanta, 350 U.S. 879 (1955) (per curiam).
