“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.” — from Jackson's Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal

Robert H. Jackson Articles


This page features selected articles by, about and relating to Robert H. Jackson. For a complete list of articles by Jackson, click on the Bibliography tab at left.

Brown v. Board of Education Law Clerks Roundtable: See the Summer 2004 St. John's Law Review for the Jackson Center's 50th anniversary Brown I roundtable, Supreme Court Law Clerks' Recollections of Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education II Law Clerks Roundtable: Here is the transcript of the May 18, 2005 roundtable discussion at the Jackson Center of Supreme Court law clerks Gordon B. Davidson, Daniel J. Meador, Earl E. Pollock, and E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., who served on the Court at the time of the Brown II decision in 1955, moderated and introduced by John Q. Barrett. Although Robert H. Jackson died before the Brown II decision, his last law clerk, E. Barrett Prettyman continued to clerk for John Marshall Harlan, who succeeded Jackson on the Court. With the phrase "with all deliberate speed," Brown II dictated how the unanimous anti-segregation Brown I decision from the year before was to be implemented. Brown I was the last case that Robert H. Jackson was involved in before his death on October 9, 1954.

Appellate Lawyer: John Q. Barrett's article "Robert H. Jackson's Oral Arguments Before the New York Court of Appeals," appears in the Spring/Summer 2005 newsletter of the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York on pages 3 to 5. Click here to view the essay.

Remembering Fred Korematsu (1919-2005), American Hero and Jackson Center speaker.

Roosevelt and Lend-Lease: Justice Jackson's essay, “A Presidential Legal Opinion” reveals for the first time President Franklin Roosevelt's personal opinions, in FDR's own words, regarding the constitutionality of articles of the Lend Lease Act. Download PDF

Read Jackson's opinion regarding the destroyer-for-bases exchange with Great Britain here.

Jackson and the Election of 1940: Check out this transcript of the 1940 debate between Jackson and Glenn Frank at the Town Hall in New York City over the essential differences between the Republican and Democratic Parties.

International Law: Justice Jackson's speech, “The Rule Of Law Among Nations” delivered in Washington, D.C. on April 13, 1945, the evening following President Roosevelt's death and just a few weeks before President Truman appointed Jackson to be chief U.S. prosecutor of Nazi war criminals, to the American Society of International Law.

Democracy: Attorney General Jackson's speech, “A Progressive Democracy”, delivered in Washington, D.C. on inauguration eve January 19, 1941.

Also check out Justice Jackson's speech before the Law Society of Massachusetts, “Democracy Under Fire”, in which he defends the use of the word "democracy" in describing the United States. Jackson calls for a united, bipartisan political front against the impending tide of fascist aggression in 1940. Download PDF

Social Security: Excerpts from Assistant Attorney General Jackson's 1937 winning arguments to the Supreme Court on the Social Security Act, published February 13, 2005 by John Q. Barrett. (Download PDF)

Bill of Rights: In his essay “Deep Throat, Justice Jackson and Suicide Pacts”, Professor John Q. Barrett accurately presents Jackson's views on the Bill of Rights and amends Mark W. Felt's misquote of Jackson in the opening pages of his 1979 memoir The FBI Pyramid from the Inside.

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