Frankfurter, Labor Law and the Judge’s Function

Abstract

When the first Roosevelt was considering appointing Holmes to the Supreme Court, he wrote to Senator Lodge: "Now I should like to know that Judge Holmes was in entire sympathy with our views .... absolutely sane and sound on the great national policies for which we stand in public life." The second Roosevelt needed to make no such inquiries before appointing a successor to the "Holmes chair." Professor Frankfurter was not only "sane and sound on the great national policies," he was one of the consulting architects in their design. Those who believed that the stultifying conservatism of the Court could be corrected by appointing men of liberal economic and social predilections rightly rejoiced. If his performance on the Court disappointed them, the fault lay not in his past but in their premises.