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July 11, 2005

What Was This World Coming To?

I
spent the day today at the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY, doing some research. I came across a document that made me smile. It's a diary entry from Attorney General Francis Biddle, dated October 28, 1942.

Here's the story: in 1942, after just a year's service, Associate Justice James F. Byrnes left the Supreme Court to become the Director of Economic Stabilization. At the time Attorney General Biddle wrote this diary entry, he was deep in the search for Byrnes' replacement. Roosevelt did, in fact, end up settling on Wiley Rutledge.

Isn't it just, I don't know, quaint to see a President and an Attorney General out looking for a "liberal" for the U.S. Supreme Court?

(And in 1942, no less! Good God! Didn't they know there was a war on?)

Posted by Eric at July 11, 2005 9:10 PM

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Comments

Why do you visit the Roosevelt Library after staining his reputation?

Isn't that being a hypocrite?

Posted by: Kjell at July 11, 2005 11:15 PM

Kjell, I didn't stain Roosevelt's reputation. He did that all by himself.

Posted by: Eric at July 12, 2005 11:23 PM

Great post, Eric. As for the quaint part, though what did it mean to be a judicial "liberal" in 1942?

Posted by: Orin Kerr at July 13, 2005 8:27 PM