Chief Justice Research Paper: Analysis of Thurgood Marshall

Chief Justice Research Paper (Warren Court 1953-1969)

Introduction:

The Warren Court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren was effective after the passing of Fred M. Vinson the former Chief Justice. Chief Justice During the Warren Court Era, the court handled several landmark cases that would transform area of laws in racial segregation, criminal procedures, and free speech to name a few. Many of the cases that the Supreme Court reviewed during this time are well known to the public, this is due to the impact and social progress that was made by the decisions. The cases that I will be reviewing will be focusing on racial segregation and criminal procedures, the Warren Court expansion in these two field was new to the Supreme Court. The Warren Court was considered very liberal, all the Justices prior to Earl Warren was appointed by Democratic Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, both very selective in choosing liberal Justices on the highest Court. I argue that the Warren Court interpretation of the 14th Amendment, specially “no state shall deny equal protection before the law”, allowed for the court to challenge existing State laws and expand civil liberties, as well as adjusting existing amendments for the best outcome.

Section 2

The Warren Court lasted for fifteen years and over two decades (50’s & 60’s), the Warren Court has a lasting impact due to its length and the social issues that they tackled. It was during the time of the Vietnam War, Cold War, the entire civil rights movement, and the beginning of Second-wave feminism. The court had a liberalism view due to the New Deal and Great Society coalition that was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt (Gillman, et al. 2016). Justices like Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, and William O. Douglas spent decades on the Supreme Court following Franklin Roosevelt nomination. Between the 15 years that the Warren Court was active, there were three Presidents, one being a republican and the other two democrats.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) policy was to maintain the growth of the American economy and was a strong President due to his involvement in the Second World War, and the American people wanted him to deal with the Cold War. However, Eisenhower has often seen as failing to protect civil rights for African American, this is because he was in office during the early stages of the Civil Rights movement (Santoro, 2008). Eisenhower and the Republican party did act during the Little Rock Crisis, where they re-aligned party goals for this specific event. Eisenhower ordered the Arkansas National Guards to protect the African American students for an entire school year so they can engage in learning without racial discrimination (Strauss, 2008). Besides this event, racial segregation was not seen as a pressing issue during Eisenhower term. As a moderate Republican, Eisenhower’s job was difficult due to a divided government. The Congress was a Democratic majority for six of his eight years in office, despite this, Eisenhower favored many of the programs and policies that were implemented by the New Deal.

John F. Kennedy (D) was elected during the height of the Cold War, during Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Ferrell 2019), he was more focused on the threat of the Cold War rather than domestic policies at the time. Citizens elected Kennedy due to his party platform on national defense, but also because of the way he presented himself to the public during television debates. Kennedy like his predecessor Eisenhower was not fully committed on civil rights law at the time but had plans in the pipeline such as the Civil Right Act of 1964 and Revenue Act of 1964 (Ferrell 2019), but unfortunately, President JFK assassinated, so we are left to wondering what type of policies he would’ve enacted following these listed.

Lyndon B. Johnson (D) was the Vice President of JFK and immediately took office following the assassination of President Kennedy. In the following year, President Johnson won in a landslide election, President John had two party goals the first one was supporting the civil rights movement, at the height of the civil rights movement (Germany, 2019), President Johnson vocally endorsed the Voting Right Act for African American and their struggle during the Selma to Montgomery (Brummel 2015). The second party goal was President Johnson designing the Great Society legislations, which was the platform he used during his tenure as the 36th President. The Great Society was a legislation that increase employment and prosperity like the New Deal thirty years ago. The Great Society was an expansion on Kennedy’s tax cuts that he proposed earlier. However, during the 1969 election, President Johnson refused to seek reelection and the New Deal Coalition lost, and afterward, the coalition collapsed. American public was not satisfied with how President Johnson was handling the conflict over sea and wanted the President to deescalate the Vietnam War.

Section 3:

President Eisenhower, the first President during the Warren Court was able to successfully appoint the Chief Justice and four associate justices during his two terms that he was in office. The position of the 14th Chief Justice was the most important judicial appointment for President Eisenhower throughout his two terms. During this time the Republican party held power in both branches of Congress and choosing the right Chief Justice would have changed the direction of the highest court. President Eisenhower decided to appoint Earl Warren as the 14th Chief Justice following the death of Chief Justice Fred Vinson. Eisenhower decision in appointing Warren was heavily influenced by the Presidential election of 1952. Earl Warren stepped down from contention and began vocally supporting Eisenhower campaign as the Republican candidate, to show his gratitude, President Eisenhower would nominate Warren to the Supreme Court at the first opportunity. Before that he was the Republican Governor of California, the nomination of Warren was supposed to side with Eisenhower policies however as it turned out many decisions made by the new Chief Justice was a major disappointment, Eisenhower believe that Governor Warren had the integrity, and courage that represented his political and social thinking. President Eisenhower admittedly regret appointing Warren as Chief Justice, calling him, “the biggest mistake he ever made”. Warren was a conservative-moderate Governor in California, but after leaving office and taking over the United States Supreme Court as Chief Justice, he became very liberal.

The next associate justice on the Supreme Court was John Marshall Harlan following the death of Robert H. Jackson who died due to declining health in the year 1954. Justice Harlan took office after the decision of Brown vs. Board of Education, this is important because Senate was worried that Eisenhower would nominate another liberal Justice like he did earlier with Chief Justice Warren. Justice Harlan had to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for questions about his judicial philosophy, this was the first time that a Justice had to be questioned and ever since has set a precedent for every future Supreme Court Justice (John M. Harlan II, Oyez, 2019) Justice Harlan was a conservative, however, he believed in evolving constitution like many of his contemporaries. He sided with many progressive decisions such as the desegregation of public schools and end the ban of interracial marriages. President Eisenhower trusted Justice Harlan deeply, first appointing him for the Court of Appeal Second Circuit nine months earlier before elevating him to the Supreme Court Justice position following Justice Jackson death.

William Brennan Jr. was the next associate Justice due to the retirement of Justice Minton, this held great importance due to the up coming Presidential election of 1956. President Eisenhower wanted to win his presidential election, so to appease the Democrats Eisenhower was willing to nominate a Catholic Democrat. The nomination of Brennan was done for political reasons, but it also diversifies the demographic of the Supreme Court, the Catholic community believed that they weren’t properly represented in the highest court. Associate Justice Charles Whittaker was appointed to the Supreme Court on the same day as Brennan after the retirement of Associate Justice Reed at age 73, Justice Reed believed that he was too old to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice Whittaker had the knowledge of having served as a judge on all three federal courts, trial, appellate, and now Supreme Court (Berman 1959). The last Associate Justice that Eisenhower nominated was Potter Stewart, who was nominated due to the decline in health of Justice Harold Hitz Burton. Stewart was a moderate republican like Eisenhower, he was firm on his ideology and in many cases was the lone dissenter. President Eisenhower was able to nominate five Justices and four of the five Justices was republicans, however, these two of these four republican justices shifted their views after their nominations. Chief Justice Warren became very liberal and was practitioner of liberal activism and Justice Whittaker became a swing vote that was the Warren-Black-Douglas-Brennan liberal minority (Berman 1959). Justice Harlan had the most similar policy agenda compared to President Eisenhower, both men were progressive conservatives. Harlan believed that the Bill of Rights should be the interpretation of what the framers wrote but believed that liberty should always be evolving interpretation, I believed that Eisenhower also believed in the same thing and this can be seen during the Little Rock Nine indecent.

During his three years in office, JFK was able to nominate two Supreme Court Justices his first nomination was Arthur Goldberg to fill the vacancy of Felix Frankfurter who was influential to many conservative justices on the court. Goldberg held the shortest seat during the Warren Court after being persuaded by President Johnson to resign and give up his seat. Byron White was nominated after the Justice Whittaker retired due to a disability. Both Justices had differing judicial opinion compared to JFK, Justice White was more conservative on issues that JFK found important like his opinion on Miranda v. Arizona. During Johnson Presidency he successful nominated and confirmed two Justices. Abe Fortas was nominated and replaced Arthur Goldberg, Justice Fortas being a close advisor and friend to President Johnson. Thurgood Marshall was the next Justice to be nominated, he was the first African American to hold the Supreme Court Justice position. Justice Marshall represent Johnson due to the length he served compared to Justice Fortas.

Section 4:

The most important Supreme Court case during the Warren era is without a doubt Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). This was the first landmark case that the Warren Court had to review, and in a unanimous decision, the court was able to rule that segregated schools were unconstitutional (Gillman et al. 2016). This decision overturned court ruling established during the late 19th century. Brown vs. Board of Education ruling not only impacted the public but future justices’ opinions as well, Justice Harlan who was a conservative justice that sided with liberal justices during civil rights issues, Justice Thurgood Marshall was an attorney that represented the Brown family in Brown vs. Board of Education. Chief Justice Warren established that the was the 14th Amendment was meant to abolish segregation in public schools, he argued that we need a living constitution because the roles of minority groups were different back then, laws must be updated to protect the best interest of people. In the following years, the civil rights movement was able to pick up steam, the Little Rock Crisis, was eventually prevented due to the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, President Eisenhower nationalized Arkansas guards and ordered them to protect the African American students (Santoro 2008). Brown v. Board of Education not only help African American students, but it benefited everyone as well. Today we can see that having people of diverse background helps everyone learn and grow, by making friends with people of different culture they become more tolerant; even those with strong hatred previously can maybe learn to accept. In our current classroom many students would not be able to attend classes, a person like myself would probably be denied as well.

Nearing the end of the Warren court Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) the court reviewed a case on marriages of interracial couples, Virginia had an anti-miscegenation law that banned interracial marriages in the state. The Loving’s who married in a different state, their marriage not recognized in Virginia, and they could’ve been imprisoned for committing this “crime”. The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision declared that bans on interracial marriages violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment (Gillman, et. Al. 2016). The court struck down Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws and over turned the precedent of Pace v. Alabama that been effective for almost a century. Today interracial marriages and relationship are common in society, many people would agree that having a ban on interracial love would be barbaric and the state government are given too much power in limiting their citizens. Loving v. Virginia reminds me of the Defense Against Marriage Act, both laws were used to harm a minority group and was used state to state to seem ‘fairer’, and both were later deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, 377 U.S. 218 (1964) again happened in Virginia, this time public schools were being shut down to block access of education to African Americans. The school board wanted to shut down public schools and create new private schools that can only be attended if you are given a voucher provided by the school boards. There were no private schools that were desegregated at the time. The education of many African Americans was denied for four years and black residents had to legally fight for their right that was already established in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled in a 8+1 decision that ordered all of the schools to reopen due to the school board violating the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, the new private schools weren’t accepting black students and never intended to.

The Warren Court was also well known for their decision in criminal procedures, Gideon v. Wainwright holds great importance because of the court usage of the 14th Amendment to influence another Amendment with the power of Due Process Clause. The 6th Amendment prior to this decision did not appoint a lawyer if you cannot afford one, the 6th Amendments only mentions that a trial must be speedy and impartial. Gideon the defendant during the Supreme Court hearing was granted Abe Fortas future Supreme Court Justice as his attorney. Justice Fortas argument to the court convince them that when faced in trial even the most knowledgeable person of law will higher an attorney to represent them (Abel, 2006). The Court agreed unanimously that every American deserved an attorney when in trial and if you cannot afford one you will be given a court appointed attorney. Not only did this apply to federal cases the 14th Amendment made it so that is also applied to all cases in the state as well. However, the 6th Amendment these days is a double edge sword, public defenders that are appointed by the court are usually overworked and are payed less than they deserve (Porter, 2013). The chances of winning with a public defender is also a game of chances depending on who you get and how invested they are in your case.

Jencks v. United States, 353 U.S. 657 (1957) another case involving criminal procedure, Jencks was falsely accused of being a member of the Communist Party when in fact he was the President of a local district union. this was during the era of the Red Scare; the government was tracking Jencks and two FBI was sent to investigate Jencks activity, two written reports stat that Jencks was guilty of being in the communist party. The Court eventually overruled the decision and Jencks was let go, the court states that the government when arresting a person must produce evidence or documents in a federal criminal offense. While the court did not state anything about the Due Process Clause, Jencks should’ve theoretically been protected because he has the right to fair procedures.

Conclusion:

All in all, the Warren Courts hold great significance in today’s policy, however, the Warren court itself was only as successful was it was due to the ground work that was laid for them in previous eras. The Warren Court was able to change the entire way people deal with criminal procedures as well as improved the lives and expand rights for people of color and rights for women that I, unfortunately, was not able to get to. When looking back many I firmly agree that this court is on the good side of history. The expansion of liberties and idea of a living constitution is something many people hold deeply, and this concept first started in this era.