Felix Frankfurter Typed Letter Signed.

FRANKFURTER, Felix.

$450.00

Item Number: 114070

Typed letter signed by Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter. Two pages, typescript on Frankfurter’s Supreme Court letterhead, the letter is dated November 14, 1949 and reads in part, “My dear Mrs. McAllister: If persuasiveness, conveyed by an old and very cherished friend, could enable me to hurdle the obstacles that bar my presence at the 50th Anniversary Dinner of the National Consumers League, Molly Dawson’s letter would have done it long ago. Please take my word for it that there are very few occasions which could possibly be so tempting as the League’s Anniversary Dinner, and few occasions which would have comparable drawing power to evoke utterance from me. The things that matter in this world are the things that are rooted in time, and my ties to the Consumers League are pretty close to forty years old. More than that, some of my most intimate friendships are related to it, and all the glow and stimulus that binds people together who have shared in after all what were not important battles. Mostly I should like to come in order to let the present generation know something of the dedicated and courageous labors of John Graham Brooks and Mrs. Florence Kelley. I am not unmindful of so many other great soldiers in the common fight, but Mrs. Kelley stands forth as a shining, indomitable fighter who never wearied of well-doing when the going was toughest… Very sincerely yours, Felix Frankfurter.” The recipient, Mrs. Thomas McAllister was the wife of Thomas F. McAllister, who served as a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court from 1938 to 1941 prior to his appointment as a judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Here, Frankfurter is declining her invitation to address the fiftieth anniversary of the National Consumers’ League, which was chartered in 1899 by social reformers Jane Addams and Josephine Lowell and directed by Florence Kelley. Under Kelley’s direction, the League’s early focus was to oppose the harsh, unregulated working conditions many Americans were forced to endure. In near fine condition.

Austrian-American lawyer, professor, and jurist Felix Frankfurter served on the Supreme Court from 1939 to 1962 and was a noted advocate of judicial restraint in the judgments of the Court. In the late 1930s, Frankfurter became close friends with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who appointed him to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by the death of Benjamin Cardozo. The nomination was met with opposition due to Frankfurter's close relationship with the President and affiliation with special interest groups. The controversy permanently changed the process which had been followed for 150 years, being the first time that a nominee for the Supreme Court appeared in person before the Judiciary Committee.