Talk:Felix Frankfurter

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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on February 22, 2017.

First modern judicial conservative

He seems to be first modern judical conservative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.112.242.121 (talk) 19:26, 10 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had previously asked, but then deleted, why you would call Frankfurter a judicial conservative, thinking you were referring to his politics, but then it occured to me that you are referring to his belief in judicial restraint. If that is true, I still say he should not be referred to as a "judicial conservative." It is such a misleading and loaded word, now associated with Scalia, et al. Many of the liberals of the 30's and 40's argued for Judicial restraint, that's why FDR wanted them on the court. He wanted new life in there that would find New Deal legislation constitutional and not strictly scrutinize legislative and executive actions on economic matters. While that sounds similar to what Bush is after today with his court appointments, I think the term "judicial conservative" is too loaded and too aligned with conservative laisez faire politics to be fitting for Frankfurter. This is particularly so, as modern judicial conservativism now incorporates originalists/textualists who argue that we should look no further than the beliefs and knowledge of 1789 when deciding Constitutional issues. Clearly Frankfurter would have nothing to do with arguments of that sort. Though he believed in Judicial Restraint, Frankfurter was no Judicial Conservative.Nepal Tree 05:59, 17 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

At Harvard Law

I'm not sure if at Harvard Law School he had the second best record ever, the best since Louis Brandeis, or just a very excellent one. I've kept it a bit vague in the article. Ryanluck 17:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Initial?

I've seen records of Frankfurter's cases on Cornell's website that give his initial as being J, not F. Is this a spelling mistake on their part, or did he go by a different name at some point.

perfectblue97 — Preceding undated comment added 15:21, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When judges are cited in court cases or briefs it looks like this "Franfurter, J." The "J" is not their first initial. It indicates "judge" or "justice" depending on which court they sit. Nepal Tree 04:59, 17 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wife of a Jewish merchant

I don't know anything about the life of Frankfurter, but I will say that the first line seems a bit odd. If he was born to the wife of a Jewish merchant, then why not just say he was born to a jewish merchant in Vienna. Better still, why not just name his parents. Save the jewish reference for his appointment to the Supreme Court, because that is really when it is significant.Nepal Tree 04:59, 17 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Judicial Restraint

I had commented on this above, but wanted to give it its own section. I was just rereading the article and came across this:

"Despite his liberal political leanings, Frankfurter became the court's most outspoken advocate of judicial restraint, the view that courts should not interpret the fundamental law, the constitution, in such a way as to impose sharp limits upon the authority of the legislative and executive branches."

This section highlights the problem with terms like "judicial conservative." Frankfurter, and most of the New Deal Court, were concerned, as was their predecessor, Holmes, that the Supreme Court for too long had thwarted the economic innovations of Federal and State Legislatures. In time when economic upheaval and industrialization were changing the nature of American life, these progressive men felt that the Court, relying on antiquated maxims of the common law and predispositions to not allow the government to interfere in the internal workings of commerce, was stopping legislation essential to solving the new crisises of the industrial era. The Judicial Restraint of Frankfurter was not in spite of his liberal politics, it was because of his liberal politics. It is also arguable that his restraint was limited to economic issues. You'll notice that he joined the majority in Brown, which had the Courts geting very involved in the local state and municipal laws. The thing to remember about judicial policies is that they are not political views, but a means to a political end. Liberal and Conservative justices will argue judicial restraint when it is needed to make a case turn out the way they want it. But even a conservative like Judge Scalia, will not hesitate to interpret and even redefine a law when he doesn't like it. Look what he just tried to do to the Army Corps of Engineers definition of the "waters of the United States" in that Michigan land use case that came down this past June. Nepal Tree 15:35, 28 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He joined the Brown majority but also sabotaged it by insisting on the phrase "all deliberate speed". And his support of suppressing 1st Amendment rights had nothing to do with economic issues. 75.76.213.106 (talk) 19:20, 17 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that the current conservative justices are inconsistent about their philosophies when it benefits them (see: Thomas justifying expanded executive powers with Roe-like penumbra arguments). However, I would say Frankfurter is more than passingly similar to modern conservatives, as he was also very insistent on keeping out of state issues.RafaelRGarcia (talk) 06:33, 8 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Trivia

"Frankfurter is one of two Supreme Court justices to share a name with a food item (the other is Warren E. Burger)." Is this really relevant? It doesn't even seem true (for example Salmon P. Chase). Makgraf 09:44, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oh course it isn't. wikipedia is not a collection of every piece of trivia wp:not. Use your common sense that was telling you to delete this and nuke it. also, is it sourced? If not, nuke it! If not, I have no problem doing it. Cheers! --Tom 13:20, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Selfcontradictory Source ?

[1] on the site it is said: Birth: Nov. 15, 1882, Death: Feb. 22, 1965, the gravestone shown shows the same year of death.
wikipedia main article says that Felix Frankfurter died in the 80'ies. -- 88.72.19.122 14:08, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, it has been my fault, I confused the date of death with his age when dying. (Felix Frankfurter died from congestive heart failure at the age of 83.) -- 88.72.19.122 14:10, 27 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Possible Error

I'm not sure but I think there may be an error on this page.

In the External Links section there is a Supreme Court section.

The "The Hughes Court" section marks Earl Warren as the Chief Justice ("Chief Justice: Earl Warren (1953–1969)").

Skipping down to the "Warren Court" section we see it marks Earl Warren as the Chief Justice ("Chief Justice: Earl Warren (1953–1969)")

Is this correct? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Greppyrun (talk • contribs) 01:04, 8 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Party?

What has drawn me to the man is the fact that he was not in a party, and has far as I can tell he was the only man to become a Justiced, does anyone have a view on this matter? 67.35.75.222 (talk) 23:03, 4 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Should be incorporated into article proper

In the external links section there is currently text about a 2006 Epoch Times editorial reporting an exchange between Jan Karski and Frankfurter. This does not belong there but should find its may into the article somehow (or be purged). __meco (talk) 17:45, 28 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Jan Karski, a silent messenger by Jack Fuchs, June 1, 2001

"The dialogue with Felix Frankfurter, member of the Supreme Court, is equally clarifying. Frankfurter asked him: 'Mr. Karski, do you know who I am? ¿Do you know that I am Jewish?' After Karski´s narration of the facts, Frankfurter walks a few steps, thinks for a while and answers him categorically: 'A man like me has to be completely honest, so I tell you that I cannot believe what you are telling me'. Other Jewish leaders did not believe him either."

This behaviour is interesting for a man like Frankfurter; is it not?

Austerlitz -- 88.72.9.43 (talk) 13:33, 21 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

[2]

Is there anybody to incorporate the event?

Austerlitz -- 88.72.9.43 (talk) 13:44, 21 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bot-created subpage

A temporary subpage at User:Polbot/fjc/Felix Frankfurter was automatically created by a perl script, based on this article at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. The subpage should either be merged into this article, or moved and disambiguated. Polbot (talk) 20:56, 4 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Page now indicates all info has been merged and that it should be deleted - Hydronium Hydroxide (talk) 11:55, 17 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Honorary degree

Per https://archive.org/download/brownalumnimonth609brow/brownalumnimonth609brow_bw.pdf he received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Brown University in 1960. Can't see a good place to merge it in, however. - Hydronium Hydroxide (talk) 11:55, 17 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Beef about Holocaust section

Here is a beef I have about Wikipedia in general—often articles give undue prominence to something that strikes a particular editor's fancy. The bit about debriefing the Holocaust informant is a case in point. It is interesting, no doubt. But if you were going to write a 600 page biography of Frankfurter, the incident would only occupy a page or two and then only if there was some context, which this paragraph lacks. Nevertheless in an article supposedly of encyclopedic importance, it takes up 1/9th of the topics. And what are we supposed to make of it? There isn't even any context to explain any of it. Was Frankfurter a Holocaust denier? I think that's hardly possible. So what is the point of including it without context? Surely this article, about one of the 20th centuries legal giants in American jurisprudence, should be vastly increased before something like this is dropped in. Otherwise the criticism that Wikipedia articles are just repositories of trivia gains even further support. AnthroMimus (talk) 04:19, 1 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This article and other WP articles surely should show how the subject had an impact on the world. Frankfurter was used by the President to advise him on whether to credit Karski's assertions , and he did not believe Karski and advised accordingly. The context is that the Western Allies were slow to understand what was going on in the death camps. The interest is that, had Frankfurter's advice to the Pres been different, some actions by the Allies might have been taken earlier and in some respects the course of history might have been a bit different. In the context of many millions being killed, even a small change in Allied actions might have resulted in hundreds of thousands fewer being killed. I would suggest that this is mightily significant compared with being any sort of 'giant of American jurisprudence'. As the 'context' that you ask for would need to be wide-ranging and inevitably, would involve 'what-ifs' & matters of judgment, then imho providing a context in the article is not easy, though if you insist I would be prepared to attempt this. To answer your question about the point, the point of including this 2-line section is that probably this action by Frankfurter had a bigger impact on the world than the rest of his career. Your statistic ("1/9th of the topics") is of course wildly unfair: the two lines have to be in a separate heading because the info does not fit into any of the other topics, and 2 lines is a much smaller proportion of the text than 1 in 9. On your generalized point ("Wikipedia in general...") I suggest you have to deal with it article by article.

Gravuritas (talk) 10:40, 1 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, just noticed your other question. Yes, Frankfurter denied Karski's evidence and hence the Holocaust, for a crucial period when the President wanted his advice on the matter. Read the two lines again, carefully.

Gravuritas (talk) 10:45, 1 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Link works. Dhtwiki (talk) 22:32, 10 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Succession Error

The second opening paragraph lists Frankfurter's predecessor as Justice Louis Brandeis; in fact, it was Justice Benjamin Cardozo. It also says Frankfurter was nominated after Brandeis's death, which is incorrect. While Frankfurter was confirmed on January 20, 1939, Brandeis did not step down until February of that year, and did not pass away until 1941. The Brandeis/Cardozo error does not appear in the sidebar ("Preceded by: Benjamin Cardozo"), or in the "Supreme Court justice" section ("Following the death of Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo in July 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ... nominated Frankfurter"). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.179.67.200 (talk) 21:18, 3 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Group Photo

Is a supreme court group photo available that shows Frankfurter as the junior justice, prior to WIlliam O Douglas joining the court? 174.198.15.19 (talk) 05:31, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]