Democratic Justice

Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment

By: Brad Snyder

Narrated by: James Fouhey

Length: 37 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The definitive biography of Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court justice and champion of twentieth-century American liberal democracy.

The conventional wisdom about Felix Frankfurter―Harvard law professor and Supreme Court justice―is that he struggled to fill the seat once held by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Scholars have portrayed Frankfurter as a judicial failure, a liberal lawyer turned conservative justice, and the Warren Court’s principal villain. And yet none of these characterizations rings true.

A pro-government, pro-civil rights liberal who rejected shifting political labels, Frankfurter advocated for judicial restraint―he believed that people should seek change not from the courts but through the democratic political process. Indeed, he knew American presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, advised Franklin Roosevelt, and inspired his students and law clerks to enter government service.

Organized around presidential administrations and major political and world events, this definitive biography chronicles Frankfurter’s impact on American life. As a young government lawyer, he befriended Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, and Holmes. As a Harvard law professor, he earned fame as a civil libertarian, Zionist, and New Deal power broker. As a justice, he hired the first African American law clerk and helped the Court achieve unanimity in outlawing racially segregated schools in Brown v. Board of Education.

In this sweeping narrative, Brad Snyder offers a full and fascinating portrait of the remarkable life and legacy of a long misunderstood American figure. This is the biography of an Austrian Jewish immigrant who arrived in the United States at age eleven speaking not a word of English, who by age twenty-six befriended former president Theodore Roosevelt, and who by age fifty was one of Franklin Roosevelt’s most trusted advisers. It is the story of a man devoted to democratic ideals, a natural orator and often overbearing justice, whose passion allowed him to amass highly influential friends and helped create the liberal establishment.

©2022 Brad Snyder (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Great book

Great book about a great man. A man like the Citizen Soldiers of Stephen Ambrose. An immigrant but more an American

Panoramic and deep

Wow, what an amazing judicial biography. It’s so comprehensive and interesting the whole way. The theme is also so pertinent to our times. Brad Snyder is a masterful biographer. I am a lawyer, so of course this is a particularly interesting to me, but I think anyone interested in the sweep of ideas through the 20th century would find this very engaging.

Excellent reading of an epic biography

James Fouhey gives a nuanced and wonderful reading of this epic biography by Brad Snyder. Felix Frankfurter knew presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to LBJ, and he was an especially close advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Frankfurter's career as a Justice on the Supreme Court was controversial to say the least. Meticulously researched and often grippingly written, this biography is highly recommended for those interested in the Supreme Court.

An extraordinary traditional biography

this is one of the most outstanding biographies of a supreme court ever written. Anyone interested in antisemitism in the pre-World War II United States, Harvard law school, the new deal, the battles in the supreme court between the black and Douglas wing of the court and the Frankfurter and Jackson wing of the court, will learn a tremendous amount from Brad Stevens' magisterial biography of Felix frankfurter.