# Tom C. Clark *United States attorney general (1945–1949) and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1949–1967)* Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899 – June 13, 1977) was a Dallas-born lawyer and a Democrat. Under President Harry S. Truman he held office as the 59th attorney general of the United States from 1945 until 1949. He then sat on the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] as an associate justice from 1949 until 1967.[^1] Truman's 1949 nomination made Clark the first justice from Texas, and as of 2026 he remains the only one.[^1] At the [[United States Department of Justice]] before and during his term as attorney general, Clark coordinated the Alien Enemy Control Program on the West Coast in the months before the internment of Japanese Americans. He later called the relocation program a mistake.[^2] His tenure as attorney general also produced war-fraud and antitrust prosecutions and a juvenile-delinquency commission.[^3] It also produced the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations, which opponents cited against his Supreme Court nomination.[^4] On the Court, Clark wrote the majority opinion in *Mapp v. Ohio*, which held that the Fourth Amendment's bar on unreasonable searches and seizures binds the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. He also wrote for the majority in *Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States*, which sustained the public accommodations provision of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].[^1] He took senior status in 1967 when his son Ramsey Clark became attorney general, and [[Thurgood Marshall]] filled the seat.[^5] ## Early life Clark's parents were Virginia Maxey (née Falls) and William Henry Clark, who had moved to Texas from Mississippi. His father, a lawyer, became the youngest person to that date elected president of the Texas Bar Association.[^6] At Dallas High School Clark won honors in debate and oratory. *Boys' Life* listed him in October 1914 as Eagle Scout number 188, one of the first 200.[^6] He spent a year at the Virginia Military Institute and left for financial reasons.[^6] In 1918 the U.S. Army turned him away as underweight. He then joined the Texas National Guard for World War I, served in the infantry, and rose to sergeant.[^6] After the war he earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Texas at Austin in 1921 and a Bachelor of Laws from its law school in 1922.[^6] He belonged to Delta Tau Delta and was the fraternity's international president from 1966 to 1968.[^6] ## Early career Clark practiced law in Dallas from 1922 to 1937. That practice was broken by a term as the city's civil district attorney from 1927 to 1932, after which he returned to private work for four years.[^7] In 1937 he entered the Justice Department as a special assistant to the attorney general in the war risk litigation section. He moved next to the antitrust division under Thurman Arnold, and in 1940 he took charge of its West Coast antitrust office.[^7] After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Attorney General Francis Biddle appointed Clark Civilian Coordinator of the Alien Enemy Control Program.[^7] In that post he worked with General John DeWitt and with [[Earl Warren]], then California's attorney general, as policy moved toward the internment of Japanese Americans.[^7] The measures ran in stages. Japanese Americans were first excluded from military-designated prohibited areas, then evacuated from "critical zones and areas," and finally relocated by force to inland camps.[^7] Clark was transferred to Washington in May 1942 and had no direct part in the camps themselves; he afterward acknowledged the relocation program as a mistake.[^7] In 1943 he became assistant attorney general for antitrust and later head of the Criminal Division. He also led a new War Frauds unit that investigated and prosecuted corruption by government contractors.[^7] ## U.S. Attorney General Truman named Clark attorney general in 1945, one of his first changes to the cabinet he inherited from Franklin Roosevelt. The choice rested partly on the two men's close personal and professional ties.[^3] *Life* magazine wrote of him: "He is a good prosecutor and good lawyer, but most of all he is a thorough politician."[^3] As attorney general, Clark kept the department focused on war-fraud prosecutions and antitrust enforcement.[^3] On Truman's orders, Clark enforced a statute barring strikes against government-run facilities against John Lewis of the United Mine Workers. Clark argued the resulting case before the Supreme Court, which upheld contempt citations against Lewis.[^3] Clark's juvenile-delinquency campaign stressed rehabilitation and education, changed federal court procedure, and backed parole for first-time juvenile offenders.[^3] He convened a White House conference on the subject and set up a National Commission on Juvenile Delinquency headed by Eunice Kennedy.[^3] He also supported Truman's civil rights program by putting federal enforcement power behind it.[^3] ## Supreme Court Justice Clark helped reelect Truman in 1948 and told the White House he intended to go back to private practice in Texas. When Associate Justice [[Frank Murphy]] died suddenly, Truman instead nominated Clark to the vacancy, in part to strengthen Chief Justice Fred Vinson's majority.[^4] Critics charged cronyism and a lack of judicial experience. Some objected to his central place in Truman's anti-communist agenda, including the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations.[^4] Former Roosevelt cabinet members Henry Wallace and Harold Ickes both opposed the nomination. Ickes said that Truman "has not 'elevated' Tom C. Clark to the Supreme Court, he has degraded the Court."[^4] The [[New York Times]] described Clark as "a personal and political friend [of Truman's] with no judicial experience and few demonstrated qualifications."[^4] Clark declined to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee at its August 1949 hearing.[^4] On August 12 the committee voted 9–2 to report the nomination favorably. The full Senate confirmed him on August 18, 1949, by 73–8.[^4] Clark served on the Vinson and Warren Courts. He joined majorities in several racial segregation cases, among them *Brown v. Board of Education*.[^1] Beyond *Mapp* and *Heart of Atlanta*, his majority opinions included *Garner v. Board of Public Works*, *Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson*, and *Boutilier v. Immigration and Naturalization Service*.[^1] He also wrote for the majority in *Abington School District v. Schempp*, which held mandatory Bible reading in public schools unconstitutional.[^1] ## Later life On June 12, 1967, Clark took senior status, which in practice ended his service on the Court. He did so to avoid a conflict of interest after Ramsey Clark's appointment as attorney general.[^5] He was the last Truman appointee still sitting. His successor, Thurgood Marshall, became the Court's first African American justice under President [[Lyndon Johnson]].[^5] In retirement Clark traveled abroad as a goodwill ambassador.[^5] He then chaired the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Evaluation of Disciplinary Enforcement, which the ABA had authorized at its February 1967 midyear meeting and which became known as the Clark Commission.[^5] The commission's 200-page study, issued in 1970, found lawyer discipline grossly understaffed and underfunded, and absent in many states. It also faulted the methods used to select judges.[^5] The ABA approved the report unanimously and established a Standing Committee on Professional Discipline in 1973.[^5] After Watergate, many of the commission's recommendations took effect, including the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination and a bar disciplinary authority in every state.[^5] ## Death Clark died in his sleep on June 13, 1977, at his son's apartment in New York City. He was buried at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas County, Texas.[^8] ## Works - *Prejudice and Property: An Historic Brief Against Racial Covenants*, with Philip B. Perlman (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1948).[^9] - Foreword to Dwight F. Henderson, *Courts for a New Nation* (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1971).[^9] ## Legacy The University of Texas School of Law in Austin holds 524 linear feet of Clark's papers, including his Supreme Court files. The Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, keeps a smaller set drawn mainly from his years as attorney general.[^10] The law school named its student lounge for him and funds a tuition subsidy in his name.[^10] Other namesakes include the Tom C. Clark Building in Austin, which houses offices of the Texas judiciary, and Tom C. Clark High School in San Antonio's Northside Independent School District.[^10] His former clerks endowed the Tom C. Clark award for the year's outstanding Supreme Court Fellow.[^10] Shortly before his death, Clark became the first recipient of Mississippi State University's Distinguished Jurist Award. He also received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and, in 1975, the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award.[^10] Suffolk University Law School in Boston named its moot court appellate competition after him.[^10] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, lead section (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — dates of office, Texas origin, Court membership and majority opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Early career" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Alien Enemy Control Program role and later acknowledgment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "U.S. Attorney General" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — appointment, prosecutions, Lewis case, juvenile-delinquency program, civil rights enforcement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Supreme Court Justice" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — nomination, objections, committee vote 9–2 (Aug. 12, 1949), Senate confirmation 73–8 (Aug. 18, 1949). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Later life" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — senior status June 12, 1967; succession; Clark Commission and its 1970 report. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Early life" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, family, schooling, military service, degrees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Early career" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Dallas practice, Justice Department posts 1937–1943, War Frauds unit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Death" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — date, place of death and burial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Works" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — published works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark [^10]: Wikipedia contributors, *Tom C. Clark*, "Legacy" (revision 1379163937, retrieved 2026-10-26) — papers, namesakes, awards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_C._Clark