Herbert Brownell Junior

Herbert Brownell

Herbert Brownell, Jr. (born February 20, 1904 in Peru , Nemaha County , Nebraska , † May 1, 1996 in New York City ) was an American lawyer, politician and attorney general (Attorney General) .

Family, studies and professional career

The son of a professor at the University of Nebraska first completed a general education course at the University of Nebraska, which he graduated in 1924 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) . He then studied law at Yale Law School and obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1927 .

After completing his studies, he was admitted to the bar in New York and joined the law firm of Root, Clark, Buckner and Ballantine . In February 1929 he joined the law firm Lord, Day & Lord in New York City , where he worked until 1989 except for his public service activities.

His brother Samuel Brownell later became chairman of the government commissioner of education .

Political career

Republican Party Campaign Manager

Brownell began his political career in 1932 with the election to the New York State Assembly , in which he represented the interests of the Republican Party from 1933 to 1937 . In 1942 he became the campaign manager of Thomas E. Dewey when he successfully ran for governor of New York . In 1944 and 1948 he was again the campaign manager of Dewey in his unsuccessful presidential candidacies against the Democratic incumbents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman . From 1944 to 1946 he was chairman of the Republican National Committee .

Justice Minister under President Eisenhower

He was instrumental in getting General Dwight D. Eisenhower to retire from active military service in favor of running for US President . He was then a close associate of the Eisenhower campaign team in the 1952 presidential election . After Eisenhower's election as President, he appointed him on January 21, 1953 as Attorney General in his cabinet .

At the beginning of his tenure, he was involved in several landmark judgments in American legal history. One of the most important judgments was Brown v. Board of Education , which discussed racial segregation in public schools . Brought in by parents concerned class action lawsuits against four states and the government district took the position that separate facilities for skin color for students separated the principle of equality of the Constitution of the United States hurt. The Supreme Court unanimously endorsed this line of argument with its landmark judgment of May 17, 1954, thereby repealing the case law that had previously been in force for almost 100 years. The decision marked the end of legally sanctioned racial segregation in state schools in the United States.

On the basis of the judgment, after more than 80 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1875 , he drafted the Civil Rights Act of 1957 , which, however, was weakened in essential points by the US Senate . He was also instrumental in accelerating the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg on June 19, 1953, who were sentenced to death for espionage for the Soviet Union . Between 1954 and 1955 he carried out Operation Wetback . This was understood to mean the mass deportation of illegal Mexican immigrants. According to official information from the US government, over a million people were deported to Mexico . The action resulted in the death of several Mexicans and massive human rights violations and humiliation. Numerous US citizens who could not identify themselves are also said to have been deported.

On November 8, 1957, he resigned as Attorney General and was replaced in this capacity by William P. Rogers .

Later offices

In addition to his legal work, he was later a representative of the USA at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague . During the tenure of President Richard Nixon , he was the special envoy in Mexico from 1972 to 1974 for negotiations on the construction of canals on the Colorado River .

Most recently, he was President of the New York City Bar Association in 1982 and, from 1986 to 1989, a member of the Commission for the Organization of the 200th Anniversary of the United States Constitution .

Publications

• Brownell, Herbert / Burke, John P .: "Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell" , 1993, University of Kansas Press; ISBN 0-7006-0590-8 .

Web links

• Herbert Brownell Jr. in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• Biography on the homepage of the Ministry of Justice
• "One Law For All" , article in TIME magazine, October 12, 1953
• "Back-Room Man out Front" , TIME magazine cover story from May 13, 1957

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hernandez, Kelly L. (2006). "The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943-1954." Western Historical Quarterly 37: pp. 421-444.
2. ↑ Koulish, Robert. Immigration and American Democracy: Subverting the Rule of Law. New York: Routledge, 2010.
3. ^ Hernandez, Kelly L. (2006). "The Crimes and Consequences of Illegal Immigration: A Cross Border Examination of Operation Wetback, 1943-1954." Western Historical Quarterly 37: pp. 430, 437-440.