# Arthur Goldberg *American labor lawyer, United States Secretary of Labor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations* Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908 – January 19, 1990) was a Chicago-born labor attorney who held three federal offices in the 1960s. He was the 9th U.S. secretary of labor, an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]], and the 6th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.[^1] As general counsel to the Congress of Industrial Organizations, he was a negotiator and chief legal adviser in its 1955 merger with the American Federation of Labor.[^1] President John F. Kennedy named him secretary of labor in 1961. In 1962 Kennedy nominated him to the Court seat vacated by [[Felix Frankfurter]].[^1] He left the bench in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the United Nations post, and he resigned that post in 1968.[^1] As the Democratic nominee for [[governor]] of New York in 1970, he lost to the Republican incumbent, Nelson Rockefeller.[^1] ## Early life and education Goldberg was born on August 8, 1908, on Chicago's West Side. He was the last of eight children born to Rebecca Perlstein and Joseph Goldberg, Orthodox Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire.[^1] His father, a produce peddler, died in 1916. Goldberg stayed in school while working outside jobs, including vending at Wrigley Field and clerking in a library, and he finished Harrison Technical High School at 16.[^1] As a high school senior he attended the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder trial, which the cited biography credits with sparking his interest in law. He later cited the trial in explaining his opposition to the death penalty.[^1] After night courses at Crane Junior College and DePaul University, he received a B.S.L. (1929) and a J.D. (1930) from Northwestern University.[^1] ## Military services Goldberg entered the United States Army in 1942. He rose from captain to major and stayed in uniform through the end of the war in 1945.[^1] In the Office of Strategic Services he was chief of the Labor Desk, which built contacts within the underground labor movement in Europe.[^1] He also held a colonel's commission in the Air Force Reserve. He gave it up in 1964, citing the appearance of a conflict of interest with his seat on the Supreme Court.[^1] ## Early legal career The cited biography states that Chicago's large firms would not hire Jews. Goldberg therefore began at Pritzger & Pritzger, and in 1933 he left to open his own labor-law firm.[^1] In 1938 he represented striking Chicago newspaper workers on behalf of the CIO in a strike that lasted eight months.[^1] In 1948 the CIO named him general counsel, succeeding Lee Pressman. He also served as general counsel of the United Steelworkers of America.[^1] ## Political career Goldberg backed the presidential campaigns of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. In 1960 Adlai Stevenson urged him to support [[Hubert Humphrey]], but he backed Kennedy instead and advised Kennedy's campaign on labor.[^1] He was secretary of labor from 1961 to 1962. In that office he urged a higher minimum wage, extended unemployment benefits, youth job programs, and investment in distressed areas.[^1] The President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity was established on his advice, and he also championed the President's Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy.[^1] ## Supreme Court Kennedy had considered Goldberg for the Charles Whittaker vacancy earlier in 1962 but appointed [[Byron White]]. On August 31, 1962, Kennedy nominated Goldberg to succeed Frankfurter, after consulting Frankfurter and Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]].[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed him on September 25. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was the only senator to oppose the nomination.[^1] Goldberg sat from October 1, 1962, to July 25, 1965.[^1] The cited biography reports that he voted for a liberal outcome in 89 percent of cases. As of 2024 he was the last Cabinet official also to have served on the Court.[^1] Goldberg wrote the majority opinion in *Escobedo v. Illinois*.[^1] In his concurrence in *Griswold v. Connecticut* (1965), he relied on the Ninth Amendment for an unenumerated right of marital privacy. The biography identifies this as his best-known opinion.[^1] ## UN ambassador Adlai Stevenson II died in 1965, and Johnson pressed Goldberg to leave the Court and take Stevenson's place at the United Nations. The cited biography states that Johnson wanted the Court seat for [[Abe Fortas]].[^1] Goldberg later wrote that he resigned to gain influence over keeping the peace in Vietnam.[^1] At the UN he helped draft Resolution 242 following the Six-Day War.[^1] ## Subsequent career Goldberg left the ambassadorship in 1968 and became a senior partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York.[^1] On October 15, 1969, he was a featured speaker at the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam.[^1] In 1970 he won a contested Democratic primary for governor of New York against Howard J. Samuels, with Basil Paterson as his running mate for lieutenant governor.[^1] Rockefeller won the general election by about 700,000 votes. Goldberg afterward served as president of the American Jewish Committee and continued practicing law.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Arthur Goldberg* (revision 1371973757, retrieved 2026-10-26) — biography of Goldberg's life, offices, and career. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Goldberg