Robert H. Jackson

Robert H. Jackson
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
July 11, 1941 – October 9, 1954
Nominated byFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byHarlan F. Stone
Succeeded byJohn Marshall Harlan II
57th United States Attorney General
In office
January 18, 1940 – August 25, 1941
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byFrank Murphy
Succeeded byFrancis Biddle
24th United States Solicitor General
In office
March 5, 1938 – January 18, 1940
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byStanley Forman Reed
Succeeded byFrancis Biddle
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division
In office
January 21, 1937 – March 4, 1938
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byJohn Lord O'Brian
Succeeded byThurman Arnold
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division
In office
February 26, 1936 – January 21, 1937
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byFrank J. Wideman
Succeeded byJames W. Morris
Assistant General Counsel for the Bureau of Internal Revenue
In office
February 1, 1934 – February 26, 1936
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byE. Barrett Prettyman
Succeeded byMorrison Shafroth
Personal details
Born
Robert Houghwout Jackson

(1892-02-13)February 13, 1892
Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedOctober 9, 1954(1954-10-09) (aged 62)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Irene Gerhardt
(m. 1916)
Children2
EducationAlbany Law School
AwardsMedal for Merit

Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1941 until his death in 1954. He had previously served as United States Solicitor General and United States Attorney General, and is the only person to have held all three of those offices. Jackson was also notable for his work as Chief United States Prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals following World War II.

Jackson was the last U.S. Supreme Court justice who did not have a law degree. He was admitted to the bar via the older tradition of an internship under an established lawyer ("reading law") after studying at Albany Law School for just a year.[1] Jackson is well known for his advice that, "Any lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect, in no uncertain terms, to make no statement to the police under any circumstances",[2] and for his aphorism describing the Supreme Court, "We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final."[3]

Jackson developed a reputation as one of the best writers on the Supreme Court and one of the most committed to enforcing due process as protection from overreaching federal agencies. He was viewed as a moderate liberal,[4] and is known for his dissents in Terminiello v. City of Chicago, Zorach v. Clauson, Everson v. Board of Education, and Korematsu v. United States, as well as his majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette and his concurring opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer. Justice Antonin Scalia, who occupied the seat once held by Jackson, considered Jackson to be "the best legal stylist of the 20th century".[5]

  1. ^ "Solicitor General: Robert H. Jackson". Department of Justice. October 31, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
  2. ^ Watts v. Indiana Archived January 2, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, 338 U.S. 49, 59.
  3. ^ Brown v. Allen Archived August 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, 344 U.S. 443.
  4. ^ Gibson, Tobias. "Robert Jackson". The First Amendment Encyclopedia. University of Minnesota. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  5. ^ Garner, Bryan A. (2018). Nino and me : my unusual friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia. New York, NY. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-5011-8149-8. OCLC 992743005.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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