VI. Hughes, Stone & Vinson Courts
1930–1953
The New Deal collision, the switch in time, World War II, and the gathering storm over segregation.
The 12 justices profiled under the Hughes, Stone & Vinson Courts
Hugo L. Black
FDR's controversial first appointment — a former Klan member who became one of the Court's most passionate advocates for civil liberties and an absolutist on the First Amendment.
Stanley F. Reed
FDR's Solicitor General who defended the New Deal before the Court he then joined. The last holdout in Brown v. Board — persuaded, finally, to make it unanimous.
Felix Frankfurter
A Harvard Law professor and liberal icon who paradoxically became the Court's leading voice for judicial restraint, clashing bitterly with activist colleagues Black and Douglas.
William O. Douglas
The longest-serving justice in Court history (36 years) — a fierce individualist and outdoorsman whose opinions on privacy and free speech remain landmarks, as did his turbulent personal life.
Frank Murphy
The Court's most passionate civil libertarian of his era. Wrote a scorching dissent in Korematsu condemning the Japanese internment as "legalization of racism."
James F. Byrnes
Resigned after just one year to become FDR's domestic war mobilization chief — the shortest Court tenure of the 20th century.
Robert H. Jackson
The last justice appointed without a law degree and perhaps the greatest prose stylist in Court history. Served as chief prosecutor at Nuremberg while still a sitting justice.
Wiley B. Rutledge
FDR's last appointment — a law dean whose fierce dissent in the Yamashita war crimes case is now a classic of due process. Mentor to a law clerk named John Paul Stevens. Dead of a stroke at 55.
Harold H. Burton
A Republican senator appointed by a Democratic president — Truman's gesture of postwar bipartisanship. A modest, workmanlike justice who joined Brown without hesitation.
Fred M. Vinson
Truman's Chief Justice, and in 1951 his choice to succeed him as President, which Vinson declined. Frankfurter is said to have called his sudden death the first sign he had ever had that there is a God.
Tom C. Clark
Retired when his son Ramsey became Attorney General to avoid conflicts — among the most principled self-recusals in Court history. Author of Mapp v. Ohio.
Sherman Minton
A New Deal senator and Truman's Senate deskmate, the last senator to sit on the Court, and a firm believer that judges should defer to the elected branches.