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Dennis Donovan

(31,059 posts)
13. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black
Mon Dec 2, 2024, 01:36 PM
Dec 2024
Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party and a devoted New Dealer, Black endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections.

Before he became a senator, Black espoused anti-Catholic views and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. An article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that he temporarily resigned from the Klan in 1925 to bolster his senatorial campaign, before quietly rejoining the Klan in 1926.[5] In 1937, upon being appointed to the Supreme Court, Black said: "Before becoming a Senator I dropped the Klan. I have had nothing to do with it since that time. I abandoned it. I completely discontinued any association with the organization." Black served as the secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference and the chair of the Senate Education Committee during his decade in the Senate. Having gained a reputation in the Senate as a reformer, Black was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Roosevelt and confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 63 to 16 (six Democratic Senators and 10 Republican Senators voted against him). He was the first of nine Roosevelt appointees to the court, and he outlasted all except for William O. Douglas.

The fifth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history, Black was one of the most influential Supreme Court justices in the 20th century. He is noted for using historical evidence to support textualist arguments, his position that the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights were imposed on the states ("incorporated" ) by the Fourteenth Amendment, and his absolutist stance on the First Amendment, often declaring "No law [abridging the freedom of speech] means no law." Black expanded individual rights in his opinions in cases such as Gideon v. Wainwright, Engel v. Vitale, and Wesberry v. Sanders.

Black's views were not uniformly liberal. During World War II, he wrote the majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States (1944), which upheld the internment of Japanese Americans ordered by the president Franklin Roosevelt. During the mid-1960s, Black became slightly more conservative. Black opposed the doctrine of substantive due process (the pre-1937 Supreme Court's interpretation of this concept made it impossible for the government to enact legislation that conservatives claimed interfered with the freedom of business owners), and believed that there was no basis in the words of the Constitution for a right to privacy, voting against finding one in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965).  He also took conservative positions in cases such as Shapiro v. Thompson, Goldberg v. Kelly, Tinker v. Des Moines, and Cohen v. California where he distinguished between "pure speech" and "expressive conduct".

Recommendations

1 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

I made that decision John Shaft Dec 2024 #1
I have to wonder if you've ever capitalized the W in woman--whether black, white, or other. hlthe2b Dec 2024 #3
If women started capitalizing the W in woman, men would totally freak out. Irish_Dem Dec 2024 #5
Exactly... hlthe2b Dec 2024 #10
They do not need to capitalize the M. Irish_Dem Dec 2024 #15
Now I'm going to have to start doing that Bettie Dec 2024 #23
Yep it looks mighty fine. Irish_Dem Dec 2024 #24
IMO that's apples and oranges. The shift to capitalizing Black men or women came about because... brush Dec 2024 #27
ROFL Prairie Gates Dec 2024 #29
It's not universally followed Polybius Dec 2024 #2
. dalton99a Dec 2024 #4
Thanks. nt LAS14 Dec 2024 #7
Post removed Post removed Dec 2024 #17
When AP did that, the response from Mobile, Alabama's most beloved locally owned newspaper misanthrope Dec 2024 #30
I dunno... he started it Dennis Donovan Dec 2024 #6
Sorry, but who's he? nt LAS14 Dec 2024 #8
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black Dennis Donovan Dec 2024 #13
Kids today. SMH. And good afternoon. NT mahatmakanejeeves Dec 2024 #14
Supreme Court justice Hugo Black Sympthsical Dec 2024 #16
Louis carried on the tradition. Sneederbunk Dec 2024 #26
It's not a universal standard, so it's not like a decision was made that everyone should do this EarlG Dec 2024 #9
Thanks. nt LAS14 Dec 2024 #11
The answer from chat CBT ismnotwasm Dec 2024 #12
I guess I do DeepWinter Dec 2024 #18
I'm Guessing It's Driven By... ProfessorGAC Dec 2024 #19
But that's because they inherited their capitalization. Igel Dec 2024 #22
That's Reasonable ProfessorGAC Dec 2024 #25
I'm a white woman who always capitalizes Black but not white. yardwork Dec 2024 #20
I capatilize both XanaDUer2 Dec 2024 #21
I capitalize Black and also White TlalocW Dec 2024 #28
When it's used as a classification Noun. haele Dec 2024 #31
Thank you nt XanaDUer2 Dec 2024 #32
The arguments of the AP and Columbia Journalism School are cogent, but... LAS14 Dec 2024 #33
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