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1931 FELIX FRANKFURTER, Supreme Court Justice, Autograph Typed Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:1,200.00 - 1,400.00 USD
1931 FELIX FRANKFURTER, Supreme Court Justice, Autograph Typed Letter Signed
Autographs
Felix Frankfurter & Cardozo U.S. Supreme Court Justices
FELIX FRANKFURTER (1882-1965). Supreme Court Justice and Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.
March 14, 1931-Dated, Typed Letter Signed, upon official "Law School of Harvard University" letterhead stationery, 1 page, measuring 8” x 10.5”, Quarto, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Choice Extremely Fine. Here, two future Supreme Court Justices, Felix Frankfurter and Benjamin Cardozo, share their concern over the availability of scholarly material for students of legal history. Written to Professor Evarts B. Greene, who served as President of the American Historical Association (1930). This Letter reads, in part:

"Dear Professor Greene: I saw Judge [Benjamin] Cardozo yesterday and we talked about

odds and ends. Before we had a chance to talk about our legal history project, he told me

of the perfect misery he is in at present undergoing in working out an opinion which raises,

for practical purposes, questions of early American legal history. He then descanted on the

great inaccessibility of our legal history materials, etc., etc. That gave me my chance, and

I told him of our project. I said that before long we would turn to him for help. I did not

particularize because there was no time for it.

Cardozo is plainly highly sensitized on this subject at the moment and is peculiarly ripe for

enlistment in our cause. I do not know just how to go about mobilizing him ... To repeat,

Judge Cardozo is ready for us. I have no doubt, after my talk with him yesterday, that he

will be a most hearty support and help to our enterprise. Very cordially yours, (Signed) Felix

Frankfurter".

At the time of this Letter, Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870-1938), ranked as one of the greatest judges of all time, was serving as a Justice with the Supreme Court of New York (1914-31; served as the Chief Judge after 1926), then served as Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court from 1932-38, appointed by President Herbert Hoover. A superb association in a fine content and high quality Letter, written before the two great lawyers took their seats on the highest court in the land.
Cardozo's books, as well as his legal opinions, are regarded as classics. In four of his books written during his pre-Supreme Court career, he set forth his views upon the relation of law to life, an issue he addresses with his successor, Felix Frankfurter, who was then a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

When Justice Cardozo died in 1938, most people believed that, just as Cardozo had been the rightful heir to the place left by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935), who served on the Supreme Court from 1902-32, Frankfurter was Cardozo's rightful successor. Frankfurter was nominated on January 5, 1939 and took his seat on January 30th.