# Robert H. Jackson *American lawyer and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1892–1954)* Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) sat on the U.S. Supreme Court as an associate justice from 1941 until he died in 1954. Before joining the Court he was Solicitor General and then Attorney General of the United States, and he is the only person to have occupied all three posts.[^1] After World War II he led the American prosecution of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.[^1] Jackson trained for the bar by reading law rather than earning a law degree, after a year at Albany Law School. He remains the most recent Supreme Court justice admitted to practice without one.[^1] On the Court he wrote the majority opinion in *West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette* and a concurrence in *Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer*. He dissented in *Terminiello v. City of Chicago*, *Zorach v. Clauson*, *Everson v. Board of Education* and *Korematsu v. United States*.[^1] [[Antonin Scalia]], who later held the same seat, called him "the best legal stylist of the 20th century".[^1] ## Early life Jackson was born on February 13, 1892, on the family farm in Spring Creek Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Frewsburg, New York. His parents were William Eldred Jackson and Angelina Houghwout.[^1] He finished Frewsburg High School in 1909 and then spent a post-graduate year at Jamestown High School.[^1] At 18 he began reading law at a Jamestown, New York, firm where his uncle, Frank Mott, was a partner. Mott introduced him to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then a New York state senator.[^1] Jackson attended Albany Law School of Union University from 1911 to 1912. He completed the second-year courses and received a certificate of completion in 1912, not an LL.B.[^1] He was admitted to the bar in 1913, at twenty-one, and began practicing in Jamestown. He married Irene Alice Gerhardt in Albany in 1916.[^1] In 1917 the [[Buffalo]] firm Penney, Killeen & Nye recruited him, chiefly to defend the International Railway Company at trial and on appeal.[^1] ## Federal appointments, 1934–1938 During Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign, Jackson chaired Democratic Lawyers for Roosevelt.[^1] A different Robert H. Jackson (1880–1973), a New Hampshire resident, was also active in that campaign as Secretary of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] National Committee.[^1] Jackson entered the Roosevelt administration in 1934. His first post was Assistant General Counsel of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue, where he supervised 300 lawyers trying cases before the Board of Tax Appeals.[^1] He became Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Tax Division in 1936. In 1937 he moved to head the Antitrust Division.[^1] He took part in the 1934 prosecution of Samuel Insull, the 1935 income tax case against Andrew Mellon, and the 1937 antitrust case against Alcoa.[^1] ## U.S. Solicitor General, 1938–1940 Jackson became Solicitor General in March 1938, succeeding [[Stanley Forman Reed]] after Reed's appointment to the Supreme Court. He held the office until January 1940.[^1] In that period he argued 44 cases before the Supreme Court for the federal government and lost six. Justice [[Louis Brandeis]] once remarked that Jackson should be Solicitor General for life.[^1] Roosevelt and his staff considered Jackson a possible presidential successor in 1940. They also planned for him to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of New York in 1938. They dropped the gubernatorial effort after state party leaders resisted it.[^1] Roosevelt's own decision to seek a third term in 1940 ended the search for a successor.[^1] ## U.S. Attorney General, 1940–1941 Roosevelt appointed Jackson Attorney General on January 4, 1940. He replaced [[Frank Murphy]], whom Roosevelt had named to the Supreme Court.[^1] As Attorney General, Jackson backed a bill introduced by Sam Hobbs. It would have legalized wiretapping by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] or any other government agency where a felony was suspected. FCC chairman James Lawrence Fly opposed the bill, and it did not pass.[^1] Jackson also helped Roosevelt organize the Lend-Lease agreement, which supplied the Allied forces before the United States formally entered World War II.[^1] ## U.S. Supreme Court, 1941–1954 On June 12, 1941, Roosevelt nominated Jackson as an associate justice. The vacancy opened when Harlan Fiske Stone succeeded [[Charles Evans Hughes]] as chief justice.[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed him on July 7, 1941, and he took the judicial oath four days later, on July 11.[^1] In 1943 Jackson wrote for the majority in *West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette*. The decision struck down a public school rule that required students to salute the flag and punished refusal with expulsion and prosecution.[^1] In 1952 the Court decided *Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer*, which barred President Harry Truman's seizure of steel mills during the Korean War. Jackson's concurrence in that case laid out a three-tier framework for assessing claims of presidential power.[^1] ### Feud with Hugo Black Jackson and Justice [[Hugo Black]] were in professional and personal conflict from October 1941, their first term together on the Court.[^1] According to Dennis Hutchinson, editor of *The Supreme Court Review*, Jackson objected to what he saw as Black bringing personal preferences into his jurisprudence.[^1] ## International Military Tribunal, 1945–1946 In 1945 President Harry S. Truman appointed Jackson U.S. Chief of Counsel for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. Jackson took a leave of absence from the Court to serve.[^1] He helped draft the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal, which supplied the legal basis for the Nuremberg trials. He then served at Nuremberg as United States Chief Prosecutor.[^1] Defendant Albert Speer later described Jackson's opening statement as "the grand, devastating opening address by the Chief American Prosecutor".[^1] The Wikipedia account also reports criticism of Jackson's cross-examination. In that account, British prosecutor David Maxwell Fyfe questioned Hermann Göring more effectively, and the Tribunal rebuked Jackson for losing his temper while Göring baited him.[^1] ## Death Jackson had a severe heart attack on March 30, 1954. He stayed in the hospital until May 17, when he returned to the Court for the announcement of the *Brown* decision. He continued serving as a justice until October 4, 1954.[^1] He suffered a second heart attack on Saturday, October 9, 1954, and died that day at 11:45 a.m., aged 62.[^1] Funeral services took place at Washington's National Cathedral and at St. Luke's Church in Jamestown. All eight of the other justices traveled together to Jamestown for the service.[^1] Jackson was buried near his boyhood home in Frewsburg, New York. His headstone reads "He kept the ancient landmarks and built the new."[^1] No other justice died in active service until [[William Rehnquist]], Jackson's former law clerk, died on September 3, 2005. No other sitting associate justice died until Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016.[^1] ## Legacy Truman awarded Jackson the Medal for Merit on February 7, 1947.[^1] The Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York, displays exhibits on his life and writings and photographs from the International Military Tribunal. A statue of Jackson stands outside the center.[^1] His personal and judicial papers are held by the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and are open for research.[^1] The main courthouse of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, in Buffalo, opened in November 2011 as the Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Robert H. Jackson* (revision 1378505965, retrieved 2026-10-26) — biography, offices held, Supreme Court service, Nuremberg, death and legacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Jackson