Hugo Black

Hugo Black

Hugo LaFayette Black (born February 27, 1886 in Ashland , Clay County , Alabama , † September 25, 1971 in Bethesda , Maryland ) was an American politician and lawyer . He sat from 1926 to 1937 for the state of Alabama in the United States Senate and was then 1937-1971 Associate Judge at the Supreme Court of the United States . Black is often seen as one of the most influential judges of the 20th century. He was called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt . His tenure, during which he was best known for his literal interpretation of the United States Constitution , was the fourth longest of any US Supreme Court judge. He had a lasting influence on American jurisprudence with the view, which was not yet communicated during his lifetime, that the entire Bill of Rights also applies to the states of the USA. To this day it is difficult to place Hugo Black in a political spectrum . While his literal interpretation of the Bill of Rights often strong support of civil rights led, he refused, for example, a lifelong constitutionally vested right to privacy from.

Origin and youth

Black enrolled in medicine when he was 17, but then, on the advice of his brother, opted for law school at the University of Alabama . After graduating from college, he opened a small law firm , but then moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and joined the US Army during World War I , where he attained the rank of captain . In 1921 he married Josephine Foster (1899–1951), with whom he had three children.

In the 1920s, Black joined the Ku Klux Klan after defending a member of that organization in a murder trial in 1921 and obtaining an acquittal . Against the background of his later support for the civil rights movement and his involvement in the judgment in the Brown v. This is particularly interesting on the Board of Education , which de-segregated schools.

Member of the Senate

In 1926 Black was elected as a Democratic candidate to the US Senate . In 1932 he was re-elected. In the Senate, he was considered a strong supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal policy. At the end of 1933, his investigations led to the uncovering of the airmail scandal . In 1935, Black became chairman of the Education and Labor Committee. He held this post until the end of his mandate.

Supreme Court Justice

After the Conservative Judge Willis Van Devanter resigned in 1937 on grounds of age, Roosevelt appealed Hugo Black to the US Supreme Court . A month after its Senate approval, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a series of articles about Black's past with the Ku Klux Klan, for which reporter Ray Sprigle received a Pulitzer Prize . However, the public controversy that followed quickly ebbed when Black in Chambers v. Florida, a trial of pressure to force a confession against an African American, tried the defendant and gave the majority opinion in the trial. In 1950, Black voted against a majority in the court in a decision on the constitutionality of some anti-communist laws because, in his opinion, these laws violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution , which guarantees, among other things, freedom of expression. After his first wife died after a long illness, Black married Elizabeth Seay DeMeritte in 1951. In 1962 he wrote the majority opinion in a decision against prayers in schools. In Griswold v. Connecticut he voted against the majority, as he believed the United States Constitution did not contain the right to privacy .

Late years

In 1971, Black resigned for health reasons. He died of a stroke on September 25 of the same year . He was succeeded by Lewis F. Powell . Black served on the Supreme Court for 34 years.

Jurisprudence

Hugo Black was particularly known for his literal interpretation of the US Constitution. He opposed any interpretation and interpretation of the constitution. Black, like all of the judges nominated by Franklin D. Roosevelt , was a supporter of far-reaching federal government power . In Oregon v. Mitchell, however, he ruled that the federal government has no right to set a minimum age for elections in the states. Though his previous membership in the Ku Klux Klan doesn't suggest it, Black often supported civil rights during his tenure on the Supreme Court . Among other things, he was involved in the Brown v. Board of Education involved in desegregation in schools, but also wrote the majority opinion in the Korematsu v. United States , justifying the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Hugo Black derived from the First Amendment a strong separation of church and state . In McCollum v. Board of Education ruled that public schools are not allowed to give religious education. Furthermore, he is seen as an advocate of far-reaching freedom of expression and voted in the New York Times Co. United States for publishing the Classified Pentagon Papers . However, he had a narrower opinion on the definition of speech in terms of free speech . For example, he was of the opinion that flag burning was not covered by freedom of expression. One of the most important parts of Black's case law was his view that the entire Bill of Rights also applies to the states.

Web links

Commons : Hugo Black  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hugo Black in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Hugo Black in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Newspaper article about Hugo Black in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ku Klux Klan members in United States politics in the English language Wikipedia
2. ↑ oyez.org
3. ↑ michaelariens.com ( Memento of the original from April 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ infoplease.com
5. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
6. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
7. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
8. ↑ answers.com
9. ↑ spartacus-educational.com
10. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
11. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
12. ↑ Korematsu_v._United_States in the English-language Wikisource
13. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
14. ↑ infoplease.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
16. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
17. ↑ caselaw.lp.findlaw.com