“We can�t have all Brandeises, Cardozos, and Frankfurters ”
The first three Jewish Supreme Court Justices!
Brandeis’s nomination by Wilson brought out every anti-Semitic Jew hater in America. He was the first SC nomination to be forced to have hearings in the Senate and his confirmation was delayed by months. Wilson’s previous appointment had been James McReynolds, the most anti-Semitic SC Justice in US history. Interestingly, Brandeis had been a Republican.
Cardozo’s nomination 16 years later by Hoover was the opposite. It brought Hoover enthusiastic praise from all parts of the political spectrum. It may have been the last time that there was wide agreement that the best judge in America had been appointed to the Supreme Court. Interestingly, Cardozo was a Democrat.
Frankfurter’s nomination 8 years later brought a return to the past. Not only anti-Semites but nativists (Frankfurter had been born in Vienna) joined the opposition. Frankfurter was the first nominee to have to appear in person before a Senate committee. Frankfurter was as political independent.
All three believed in judicial restraint, trying to avoid overturning actions by the legislative or executive branches. Brandeis and Cardozo often dissented from decisions by the Hughes Court overturning New Deal legislation; Frankfurter often dissented from decisions by the Stone, Vinson, and Warren courts.
Sadly, none of the three seemed to have the slightest interest in Judaism. Brandeis’s family had been Frankists and he himself had no interest in Judaism until for some reason in the 1910s he suddenly became a passionate secular Zionist. Cardozo admitted that he was agnostic although he did contribute financially to an orthodox Synagogue, Shearith Israel in New York City. Frankfurter was descended from rabbis, but was completely disinterested in religion, married a Christian minister’s daughter, and on the court consistently voted against expanding First Amendment religious freedom protection.