Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 2,017

This is the grave of Robert Jackson.

Born in 1892 in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, Jackson grew up in Frewsburg, New York. He had no interest in college but did have an interest in the law, so at the age of 18, he began to read the law for a local attorney. It was easy, his uncle was a prominent attorney and a well-connected Democrat. So Jackson got to know Franklin Delano Roosevelt pretty early on, through that uncle. Jackson was convinced to attend the Albany Law School, which existed at Union College, in 1911. He had no interest in a law degree still. There was an option for a certificate of completion in a one-year program, so he just did that.

Jackson passed the bar in 1913 and joined a practice in Jamestown, New York. Mostly, he was a corporate lawyer, but he was young and ambitious and it’s not like being a corporate lawyer would hurt you in the Democratic Party of the early 20th century. Or any other time, now that I think about it. He and FDR became close friends and political allies. FDR named Jackson to his commission to reform the state judiciary system when the former became governor. FDR wanted to put him on the state Public Service Commission, but Jackson was more interested in money and turned it down because he wanted to stay in private practice.

But then came the Great Depression and then FDR became president. Going to Washington was a little different than going to Albany. FDR really wanted Jackson to come work for him as part of the New Deal. His first job was as assistant general counsel to the IRS, trying tax cases. Not that exciting, but well suited for Jackson’s skills. He adapted very to Washington and rose in the Justice department and soon became Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division and then was moved to the same job but in the Antitrust Division, which was a promotion in importance if not in rank. He went after the vile Andrew Mellon for tax evasion in 1935, which was the kind of thing that made New Dealers really happy, especially given how responsible Mellon was for the financial policies that created the Depression in the first place. Then in the antitrust department, he went after Alcoa, the giant aluminum corporation that Mellon owned.

In 1938, Roosevelt named Stanley Reed, his Solicitor General, to the Supreme Court. Jackson got the nod to replace him and he was tremendously effective in arguing cases before the Supreme Court, though to be fair, it was a very pro-FDR Court beginning in this year. Then in 1941, he was raised to Attorney General for the third term. He helped put together Lend-Lease. FDR even considered Jackson his potential replacement as president. So it was hardly surprising when FDR named Jackson to the Supreme Court in 1941.

Jackson is the last Supreme Court justice to not have a law degree. If there’s anything more overrated than the idea that you need to be a fancy lawyer to rule on the Supreme Court, I don’t know what it is, except perhaps the existence of the Supreme Court. These 9 people are just hacks anyway, and yes the hacks include the liberal justices and let’s not pretend otherwise. Now, Jackson tried to avoid hackdom. In fact, he and Hugo Black ended up hating each other over this issue, in that Jackson did consider Black to be a hack. And in many ways, Black was–he definitely stood up to no one’s definition of man without conflicts of interests. But even as the Court became liberal for basically the only time in its history, it was deeply divided by personal conflicts and Jackson could be a bit of a prig, so he let people know when he disapproved of them.

As a general rule, Jackson was seen as a liberal but a moderate one on the Court. But that didn’t stop him from issuing some of the most important decisions and dissents in American history. That most importantly includes Korematsu. He was disgusted by the rounding up of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps (and let’s be clear, that’s excatly what they were, like the Nazis, Americans rounded up and imprisoned people based strictly on their racial characteristics; unlike the Nazis, the Americans didn’t kill them, but let’s not use the fact that “oh we aren’t Nazis” to get in the way of what a horrific racist crime against humanity this was). There was almost no sentiment in the nation supporting the Japanese and the Korematsu case proved. Good for Jackson for his blistering dissent.

Now, Jackson was not always great. He was not only for the prosecution of Eugene Dennis in Dennis v. U.S., where he wrote a concurrence saying that the “clear and present danger” doctrine didn’t apply to Communists because they were sneaky rats who wanted to overthrow the government so they didn’t get rights. Not great.

Jackson really wanted to be Chief Justice. FDR told him that he would name him to the position when Harlan Stone died. But that didn’t happen until 1946. Harry Truman, who was besieged by supporters of both Jackson and Black to be Chief Justice, decided to name Fred Vinson instead and avoid all of this. Jackson was not happy. But he was also out of the country. Meanwhile, Jackson was actively lobbying to destroy Black’s chances from Nuremberg, including threatening to resign. It was nasty.

Oh yeah, Jackson was at Nuremberg. Truman appointed him U.S. Chief of Counsel to prosecute the Nazi leadership. Jackson enjoyed this very much. I honestly know almost nothing about these trials, I don’t think I’ve read a history book on the Nazis since college since I prefer to focus on the horrific crimes of own my nation, which are more than enough to fuel a lifetime of a historian, but my understanding is that while Jackson was super into the whole process, he wasn’t the greatest trial lawyer in the world and the British prosecutors were much more effective.

Right at the end of his life, as he was dying, Brown v. Board came before the Court. Unfortunately. Jackson had hired William Rehnquist as a clerk and of course the famed Arizona racist tried to influence Jackson against the case. Jackson clearly did not listen to Rehnquist, although it seems there was some attempts to split the difference going on in his head. But he wasn’t really able to participate that heavily. He did drag himself from the hospital for the decision though, he knew he needed to be there.

Jackson died of heart failure in 1954. He was 62 years old.

There’s much more to say about Jackson, his legacy, his jurisprudence, etc., but this post is plenty long, so let’s leave it to comments.

Robert Jackson is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, Frewsburg, New York.

If you would like this series to visit other Supreme Court justices, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Wiley Blount Rutledge is in Boulder, Colorado and Harold Hitz Burton is in Highland Hills, Ohio. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.