Arthur Goldberg
Arthur Goldberg | |
---|---|
United States Ambassador to the United Nations | |
In office July 28, 1965 – June 24, 1968 | |
President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | Adlai Stevenson II |
Succeeded by | George Ball |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
In office October 1, 1962 – July 25, 1965[1] | |
Nominated by | John F. Kennedy |
Preceded by | Felix Frankfurter |
Succeeded by | Abe Fortas |
9th United States Secretary of Labor | |
In office January 21, 1961 – September 20, 1962 | |
President | John F. Kennedy |
Preceded by | James P. Mitchell |
Succeeded by | W. Willard Wirtz |
Personal details | |
Born | Arthur Joseph Goldberg August 8, 1908 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Died | January 19, 1990 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 81)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Barry Goldberg (nephew) |
Education | |
Awards | United States of America |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Rank | Major |
Unit | Office of Strategic Services |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908 – January 19, 1990) was an American statesman and jurist who served as the 9th
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Goldberg graduated from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1930. He became a prominent labor attorney and helped arrange the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, organizing European resistance to Nazi Germany. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as the Secretary of Labor.
In 1962, Kennedy successfully nominated Goldberg to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of
Early life and education
Goldberg was born and raised on
Goldberg's interest in the law was sparked by the noted murder trial in 1924 of
Goldberg, who worked part time as a construction worker, took night courses at
In 1931, Goldberg married Dorothy Kurgans. They had one daughter, Barbara Goldberg Cramer, and one son, Robert M. Goldberg (an attorney in Anchorage, Alaska).[6] He was the uncle of prolific blues rock keyboardist Barry Goldberg.[7]
World War II
During World War II, Goldberg was a member of the United States Army, wherein he served as a captain and later a major. He wanted to join the Marines, but was not physically fit enough.
Early legal career
Due to antisemitism, Goldberg was unable to work in Chicago's big law firms because they would not hire Jews. Instead, he started his legal career at Pritzger & Pritzger, a firm founded by German Jews.[4] However, he was uncomfortable with his work at Pritzger because the work mainly dealt with representing large businesses.[4]
Goldberg's interest in labor law spiked at the start of
Goldberg became a prominent labor lawyer and represented striking Chicago newspaper workers on behalf of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1938. The strike went on for eight months and Goldberg spent almost everyday in court arguing on the worker's behalf. Eventually, the strike persuaded William Randolph Hearst to recognize the newspaper union.[2] Appointed general counsel to the CIO in 1948 to succeed Lee Pressman,[9] Goldberg served as a negotiator and chief legal adviser in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and CIO in 1955. AFL-CIO is one of the US major labor unions representing America's workers and labor. Goldberg also served as general counsel of the United Steelworkers of America.[4]
Political career
Goldberg was an active participant in the National Citizens Political Action Committee and the CIO Political Action Committee. He supported the presidential campaigns of
In 1960, Goldberg wanted his friend Adlai Stevenson to run for president, but Stevenson encouraged Goldberg to back Hubert Humphrey.[4] Instead, Goldberg backed Senator John F. Kennedy.[4] Goldberg served as a labor advisor to Kennedy's campaign and was influential in getting unions to back Kennedy.[4]
Kennedy administration
President
Supreme Court
On August 31, 1962, Kennedy nominated Goldberg as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to succeed Felix Frankfurter,[10] who was retiring. Earlier that same year, Kennedy had considered nominating Goldberg to succeed Charles Whittaker, but chose Byron White instead. Frankfurter and Chief Justice Earl Warren were consulted by the President beforehand and both gave their full support.[11]
He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 25,
Despite his short time on the bench, Goldberg played a significant role in the Court's
His best-known opinion came in the concurrence of
Perhaps Goldberg's most influential move on the Court involved the death penalty. Goldberg argued in a 1963 internal Supreme Court
Goldberg's dissent sent a signal to lawyers across the nation to challenge the constitutionality of capital punishment in appeals. As a result of the influx of appeals, the death penalty effectively ceased to exist in the United States for the remainder of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Supreme Court considered the issue in the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia, where the Justices, in a 5 to 4 decision, effectively suspended the death penalty laws of states across the country on the ground of the capricious imposition of the penalty. That decision would be revisited in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), where the justices voted to allow the death penalty under some circumstances; the death penalty for rape of an adult female victim, however, would be struck down in Coker v. Georgia (1977). In 2008, the death penalty for rape of children was ruled unconstitutional by a 5 to 4 decision (Kennedy v. Louisiana). Writing for The New York Times, Adam Liptak said that Goldberg's dissent helped "create the modern movement for the abolition of the death penalty."[15]
Goldberg also wrote the majority opinions in Escobedo v. Illinois, which provided criminal defendants the right to counsel during interrogation under the Sixth Amendment and Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, which declared unconstitutional parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that revoked citizenship for those that had fled the country in order to dodge the draft.[2]
Despite Goldberg's short tenure on the court, a number of his law clerks have gone on to become deeply influential. Stephen Breyer later became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he held Goldberg's seat on the Court from 1994 until 2022.[16] Another of Goldberg's law clerks was Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Since other justices would be unlikely to hire a Jewish clerk, Goldberg emphasized hiring Jewish clerks. Six out of his eight law clerks were Jewish.[2]
UN ambassador
In 1965, Goldberg was persuaded by Johnson to resign his seat on the court to replace the recently deceased Adlai Stevenson II as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN). Johnson wanted to appoint his friend, Abe Fortas, to the court.[17] If any of his Great Society reforms were going to be deemed unconstitutional by the Court, he thought that Fortas would notify him in advance. Goldberg, who had declined an earlier offer to leave his position to be Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, took Johnson's offer of the UN ambassadorship when Johnson discussed it with him on Air Force One to Illinois for Stevenson's funeral.[18] Goldberg was promised by Johnson that he would be a member of the President's cabinet and would be involved in all decisions involving ending the Vietnam War.[2] Bruce Allen Murphy, a professor at Lafayette College, wrote in one of his books that Johnson also told Goldberg that he would consider putting him on his ticket as vice president in the 1968 United States presidential election.[2]
Goldberg wrote that he resigned to have influence in keeping the peace in Vietnam and that after the crisis had passed, he expected he would be reappointed to the Supreme Court by Johnson to replace the retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. He also said, "I had an exaggerated opinion of my capacities. I thought I could persuade Johnson that we were fighting the wrong war in the wrong place [and] to get out."[19]: 348–351
David Stebenne, Goldberg's biographer, adds, "Many observers, then and later, found this answer hard to accept." He suggests, "Johnson must have had some influence over Goldberg that induced him [to resign from the Supreme Court]."
Johnson said of the Goldberg decision in his later-released audio tapes:
Goldberg would be able to answer the Russians... very effectively... He's got a bulldog face on him, and I think this Jew thing would take The New York Times-- all this crowd that gives me hell all the time-- and disarm them. And still have a Johnson man. I've always thought that Goldberg was the ablest man in Kennedy's Cabinet, and he was the best man to us.... Goldberg sold bananas, you know.... He's kind of like I am... He's shined some shoes in his day and he's sold newspapers, and he's had to slug it out...[18]
Goldberg chose to retain only one of Stevenson's aides, US Ambassador
Resolution 242
In 1967, Goldberg was a key drafter of
The notable omissions in language used to refer to withdrawal are the words the, all, and the June 5, 1967, lines. I refer to the English text of the resolution. The French and Soviet texts differ from the English in this respect, but the English text was voted on by the Security Council, and thus it is determinative. In other words, there is lacking a declaration requiring Israel to withdraw from the (or all the) territories occupied by it on and after June 5, 1967. Instead, the resolution stipulates withdrawal from occupied territories without defining the extent of withdrawal. And it can be inferred from the incorporation of the words secure and recognized boundaries that the territorial adjustments to be made by the parties in their peace settlements could encompass less than a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories [italics by Goldberg].[21]
Goldberg's role as the UN ambassador during the Six-Day War may have been the reason why Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, also wanted to assassinate Goldberg.[22]
Subsequent career
Frustrated with the war in Vietnam, Goldberg resigned from the ambassadorship in 1968 and accepted a senior partnership with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Longing to return to the bench, Goldberg later claimed that he was Earl Warren's preference to succeed him when the chief justice announced his retirement in 1968, but President Johnson selected Abe Fortas instead.[23] After Fortas's nomination was withdrawn in the face of Senate opposition, Johnson briefly considered naming Goldberg chief justice as a recess appointment before ruling out the idea.[19]: 373 On 15 October 1969, Goldberg was a featured speaker at the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam march.[24]
With the prospect of a return to the Supreme Court closed to him by the election of
After his defeat, Goldberg returned to law practice in Washington, D.C., and served as President of the American Jewish Committee.[25] In 1972, Goldberg returned to the Supreme Court as a lawyer, representing Curt Flood in Flood v. Kuhn. His oral argument was referred to by one observer as "one of the worst arguments I'd ever heard – by one of the smartest men I've ever known..."[26] Under President Jimmy Carter, Goldberg served as United States Ambassador to the Belgrade Conference on Human Rights in 1977, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1978.
Goldberg was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1966 until 1989.
Goldberg died in 1990. As a former member of the
See also
- Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
- John F. Kennedy Supreme Court candidates
- List of Jewish American jurists
- List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2)
- List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Warren Court
References
- ^ a b "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Dalin, David (2017). Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press.
- ^ "Chicago Carter Harrison Technical High School". Illinois HS Glory Days. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Edward B. Shils, "Arthur Goldberg: Proof of the American Dream" Archived May 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Monthly Labor Review, January 1997
- ^ "Arthur J. Goldberg Papers (Library of Congress)". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
- ^ Shannon, Don; Pogatchnik, Shawn (January 20, 1990). "Ex-U.S. Justice and U.N. Envoy Goldberg Dies". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
- ISBN 9781584653035. Archivedfrom the original on July 5, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
- ^ "JTA - Jewish & Israel News | Jewish Telegraphic Agency". jta.org. Archived from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
- ^ "CIO Names General Counsel". The New York Times. March 5, 1948. p. 7. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
- ^ "Supreme Court Nominations (1789-Present)". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
- ^ Hanley, David (1979). "Behavioral Study of Justice Goldberg and the Supreme Court". University of Baltimore Law Forum. 9 (1). Retrieved March 18, 2022.
- ^ McMillion, Barry J. (January 28, 2022). Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- ^ Rudin, Ken (May 28, 2009). "The 'Jewish Seat' in the Supreme Court". NPR. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
- ^ Griswold v. Conn. 381 U.S. 479 (U.S. 1965).
- ^ Liptak, Adam (November 3, 2015). "Death Penalty Foes Split Over Taking Issue to Supreme Court". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- Jewish Insider. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
- ^ David A. Kaplan (September 4, 1989). "The Reagan Court – Child of Lyndon Johnson?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7432-2714-8. Retrieved October 20, 2008.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-507105-0.
- ^ "Tauter & Tauter". Time. May 18, 1962. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2008.
Just two days before Holleman confirmed that he had asked Estes and other Texans to pick up the tab for a January dinner Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg gave for Lyndon Johnson, but said he backed off when he learned that Goldberg's policy was to pay for all such dinners himself. Goldberg promptly offered to produce canceled checks to prove he had paid for the dinner. Said Holleman of Billie Sol, in words reminiscent of a previous Democratic Administration: "I have not and I never will deny him as a friend."
- ^ "UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338". Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2007.
- ^ Issenberg, Sasha (June 5, 2008). "Slaying gave US a first taste of Mideast terror". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
- ^ Bernard Schwartz, Super Chief: Earl Warren and his Supreme Court (New York: New York University Press, 1983), p. 720.
- ^ Karnow 1983, p. 599.
- ^ "Jewish Virtual Library, Arthur Goldberg". Archived from the original on June 29, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
- ^ Along with Goldberg, Abe Fortas was the only other Warren era justice to later argue a case before that body. Dan Levitt, quoted in Brad Snyder, Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports, p. 281
- ^ "U.S. Department of Labor - Labor Hall of Fame - Arthur J. Goldberg". Archived from the original on May 10, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
Further reading
- Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
- Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, ISBN 1-56802-126-7.
- Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L. (eds.). The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. ISBN 0-7910-1377-4.
- Goldberg, Arthur J. AFL-CIO: Labor United. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
- Goldberg, Arthur J. Equal Justice: The Supreme Court in the Warren Era. Chicago: ISBN 0 14 00 7324 8
- Goldberg, Arthur J. The Defenses of Freedom: The Public Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ed. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
- Hall, Kermit L., ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505835-6.
- Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0-87187-554-3.
- Karnow, Stanely (1983). Vietnam: A History. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-19-507105-0.
- Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity."Skyhorse Publishing. New York, New York, 2020
- Stebenne, David (1996). Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507105-0.
- Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: ISBN 0-8153-1176-1.
External links
- JFK to Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg: Missile and Space Programs - End Labor Delays, 1961[permanent dead link] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
- Biography. U.S. Department of Labor. No date. at the Wayback Machine (archived 2006-05-09)
- Oyez, U.S. Supreme Court media, Arthur J. Goldberg.
- Oral History Interview with Arthur Goldberg, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2001-11-16)
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Arthur Goldberg's FBI files, hosted at the Internet Archive: