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FRANKFURTER, FELIX (1882-1965).

U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He came to the U.S. from Vienna at the age of 12, and earned his law degree at Harvard University in 1906. While at Harvard he was deeply influenced by the new liberal doctrines of a group of rising lawyers that included Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis. These doctrines formed the basis of his later teachings. While holding the professorship at Harvard, Frankfurter served intermittently in various government departments. His brilliant plea in defense of the convicted anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927 earned him a national reputation and brought him to the forefront of American liberalism. During the Roosevelt administration (1933-1945), Frankfurter and many of the young lawyers he had trained played influential roles in drafting much of the liberal legislation of the “New Deal.” Appointed to the Supreme Court in 1939, he advocated “judicial restraint” and deference to the will of the people. He resigned in 1962 due to ill health. Throughout his career he took an active interest in Jewish and Zionist affairs; in 1919, he was legal advisor to the Zionist delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference.

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