Frank Murphy

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For other people named Frank Murphy, see Frank Murphy (disambiguation).
"Justice Murphy" redirects here. For other uses, see Justice Murphy (disambiguation).

Frank Murphy
Detroit Recorder’s Court
In office
January 1, 1924 – August 19, 1930[2][3]
Preceded byseat established[4][5]
Succeeded byJohn P. Scallen[6]
Personal details
Born
William Francis Murphy

(1890-04-13)April 13, 1890
Harbor Beach, Michigan, U.S.
DiedJuly 19, 1949(1949-07-19) (aged 59)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Resting placeOur Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery, Harbor Beach, Huron County, Michigan
Political partyDemocratic
EducationUniversity of Michigan (BA, LLB)
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service United States Army (1917–1919)
United States Army Reserve (1942)
Rank Lieutenant Colonel
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II

William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890 – July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving as United States Attorney General, 35th governor of Michigan, and Mayor of Detroit. He also served as the last Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner to the Philippines.

Born in "The Thumb" region of Michigan, Murphy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1914. After serving in the United States Army during World War I, he served as a federal attorney and trial judge. He served as Mayor of Detroit from 1930 to 1933. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him among the ten best mayors in American history.[7] In 1933 he was appointed as Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. He returned home in 1936 and defeated incumbent Republican governor Frank Fitzgerald in the 1936 Michigan gubernatorial election and served a single term as Governor of Michigan. Murphy lost re-election to Fitzgerald in 1938 and accepted an appointment as the United States Attorney General the following year.

In 1940, President

Pierce Butler. Murphy served on the Court from 1940 until his death in 1949, and was succeeded by Tom C. Clark. Murphy wrote the Court's majority opinion in SEC v. W. J. Howey Co., and wrote a dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United States
.

Early life

Murphy was born in

Michigamua.[10]

Murphy was admitted to the

Trinity College, Dublin, which was said to be formative for his judicial philosophy. He developed a need to decide cases based on his more holistic notions of justice, eschewing technical legal arguments. As one commentator quipped of his later Supreme Court service, he "tempered justice with Murphy."[11]

Career

1919–1922: U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan

Murphy was appointed and took the oath of office as the first Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan on August 9, 1919.[12] He was one of three assistant attorneys in the office.

When Murphy began his career as a federal attorney, the workload of the attorney's office was increasing at a rapid rate, mainly because of the number of prosecutions resulting from the enforcement of

United States attorney on March 1, 1922.[13] He had several offers to join private practices, but decided to go it alone and formed a partnership with Edward G. Kemp in Detroit.[14]

1923–1930: Recorder's Court

Murphy ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the United States Congress in 1920, when national and state Republicans swept Michigan, but used his legal reputation and growing political connections to win a seat on the Recorder's Court, Detroit's criminal court.[15] In 1923, he was elected judge of the Recorder's Court on a non-partisan ticket by one of the largest majorities ever cast for a judge in Detroit, took office on January 1, 1924, and served seven years during the Prohibition era.

While on Recorder's Court, he established a reputation as a trial judge. He was a presiding judge in the famous murder trials of Dr.

mistrial of all of the black defendants, Henry Sweet—who admitted that he fired the weapon which killed a member of the mob surrounding Dr. Sweet's home and was retried separately—was acquitted by an all-white jury on grounds of the right of self-defense.[17] The prosecution then elected to not prosecute any of the remaining defendants. Murphy's rulings were material to the outcome of the case.[18]

1930–1933: Mayor of Detroit

In 1930, Murphy ran as a

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Murphy was elected its first president.[19] He served in that position from 1932 until 1933.[20]

Murphy was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Roosevelt and the

in 1852
before the Republican Party was founded.

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists, and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the

University of Illinois at Chicago saw Murphy ranked as the seventh-best American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.[21] Holli wrote that Murphy was an exemplary mayor and a highly effective leader.[22]

1933–1935: Governor-General of the Philippine Islands

By 1933, after Murphy's second mayoral term, the reward of a big government job was waiting. Roosevelt appointed Murphy as Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.

He was sympathetic to the plight of ordinary Filipinos, especially the land-hungry and oppressed tenant farmers, and emphasized the need for social justice.[23]

1935–1936: High Commissioner to the Philippines

When his position as governor-general was abolished in 1935, he stayed on as United States High Commissioner until 1936. That year, he was a delegate from the Philippine Islands to the Democratic National Convention.

High Commissioner to the Philippines was the title of the personal representative of the president of the United States to the Commonwealth of the Philippines during the period 1935–1946. The office was created by the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, which provided for a period of transition from direct American rule to the complete independence of the islands on July 4, 1946.[citation needed]

1937–1939: Governor of Michigan

UAW
leaders earlier in the day.

Murphy was elected the 35th

governor of Michigan on November 3, 1936, defeating Republican incumbent Frank Fitzgerald, and served one two-year term. During his two years in office, an unemployment compensation
system was instituted and mental health programs were improved.

Murphy as governor.

The

National Guard to protect the workers, failed to follow a court order that requested him to expel the strikers, and refused to order the Guard's troops to suppress the strike.[24][25][26]

He successfully mediated an agreement and end to the confrontation, and G.M. recognized the

National Labor Relations Act. This recognition had a significant effect on the growth of organized labor unions.[27] In the next year, the UAW saw its membership grow from 30,000 to 500,000 members. As later noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), this strike was "the strike heard round the world."[28]

In 1938, Murphy was defeated by his predecessor, Fitzgerald, who became the only governor of Michigan to precede, and then succeed, the same person.

1939–1940: Attorney General of the United States

In 1939, Roosevelt appointed Murphy the 56th

attorney general of the United States. He established a Civil Liberties Unit in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, designed to centralize enforcement responsibility for the Bill of Rights and civil rights statutes.[29]

1940–1949: Supreme Court and military service

One year after becoming attorney general, on January 4, 1940, Murphy was nominated by President Roosevelt as

Frederick Moore Vinson, who was confirmed in 1946.[33] During World War II he served in the Army Reserve during three months of 1942 while the court was in recess.[34][35] He served as the executive officer to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army George C. Marshall.[36][37] He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.[35][34]

Murphy took an expansive view of individual liberties, and the limitations on government he found in the

Securities and Exchange Commission v. W. J. Howey Co. (1946), in which the Court defined the term "investment contract" under the Securities Act of 1933
, thus giving content to the most important concept of what makes something a security in American law.

Opinions differ about him and his jurisprudential philosophy. He has been acclaimed as a legal scholar and a champion of the common man,[39] but Justice Felix Frankfurter disparagingly nicknamed Murphy "the Saint", criticizing his decisions as being rooted more in passion than reason. It has been said he was "neither legal scholar nor craftsman", and he was criticized "for relying on heart over head, results over legal reasoning, clerks over hard work, and emotional solos over team play."[40]

Justice Frank Murphy, February 1940, shortly after joining the Supreme Court

Murphy's support of African Americans, aliens, criminals, dissenters, Jehovah's Witnesses, Native Americans, women, workers and other "outsiders" evoked a pun: "tempering justice with Murphy." As he wrote in Falbo v. United States (1944), "The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution." (p. 561)

According to Frankfurter, Murphy was part of the more liberal "axis" of justices on the Court along with justices

Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Bill of Rights' protection in it; this view would later become law.[42]

Murphy is perhaps best known for his vehement dissent from the court's ruling in

internment of Japanese-Americans
during World War II. He sharply criticized the majority ruling as "legalization of racism."

This was the first time the word "racism" found its way into a Supreme Court opinion (Murphy had previously used the term twice in a concurring opinion in

anti-miscegenation statute. (See also Jim Crow laws
.)

Although Murphy was serving on the Supreme Court during World War II, he still longed to be part of the war effort and so he served at

Fort Benning, Georgia as an infantry officer during court recesses.[46]

On January 30, 1944, almost exactly one year before

Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.[47]

Murphy was among 12 nominated at the

Nazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews and of the Philippine War Relief Committee.[49] The first committee was established in early 1944 to promote rescue of European Jews, and to combat antisemitism in the United States.[50]

Death and memory

Murphy died in his sleep at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on July 19, 1949, of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 59.[51] Over 10,000 people attended his funeral in Detroit. He is buried in Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery in Sand Beach Township, Michigan, near Harbor Beach.[52]

Justice Frank Murphy is buried at Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery in Sand Beach Township, Michigan, near Harbor Beach. He is buried near Dr. Manuel Teves, M.D. who was a town physician from the Philippines during WWII and had practiced medicine in Harbor Beach from the 1969 through the early 2000s.

The

Circuit Court.[53] There is a plaque in his honor on the first floor, which is recognized as a Michigan Legal Milestone.[54]

Outside the Hall of Justice is

Walter P. Reuther and Ira W. Jayne.[58] It was placed on a pedestal in 1970 with the help of sculptor Marshall Fredericks
, who was a Milles student.

Murphy is also honored with a museum in his home town, Harbor Beach, Michigan. Housed at his former residence, it contains numerous personal artifacts from his life and career, most notably from the Philippines. The Murphy Museum is open during the summer months, by appointment.

Murphy's personal and official files are archived at the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and are open for research. This also includes an oral history project about Murphy.[59] His correspondence and other official documents are deposited in libraries around the country.[60]

In memory of Murphy, one of three University of Michigan Law School alumni to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Washington, D.C.–based attorney John H. Pickering, who was a law clerk for Murphy, donated a large sum of money to the law school as a remembrance, establishing the Frank Murphy Seminar Room.[10]

Murphy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree by the University of Michigan in 1939.[14]

The University of Detroit has a Frank Murphy Honor Society.[61]

The Sweet Trials: Malice Aforethought is a play written by Arthur Beer, based on the trials of Ossian and Henry Sweet, and derived from Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice.[62]

The

Detroit Public Schools named Frank Murphy Elementary in his honor.[63]

Personal life

Attorney General Frank Murphy and Miss Ann Parker on March 24, 1939

Murphy never married or had children. He was the subject of "[r]umors of homosexuality [...] all his adult life".[64] According to Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court:

[a] gay reading of [biographies of Murphy] suggests that Murphy's homosexuality was hiding in plain sight. For more than 40 years, Edward G. Kemp was Frank Murphy's devoted, trusted companion. Like Murphy, Kemp was a lifelong bachelor. From college until Murphy's death, the pair found creative ways to work and live together. [...] When Murphy appeared to have the better future in politics, Kemp stepped into a supportive, secondary role, much as Hillary Clinton would later do for Bill Clinton.[65]

As well as Murphy's close relationship with Kemp, Murphy's biographer, historian Sidney Fine, found in Murphy's personal papers a letter that "if the words mean what they say, refers to a homosexual encounter some years earlier between Murphy and the writer."[66] The writer of the letter implied that he and Murphy had become lovers while Murphy was governor-general and congratulated Murphy on his appointment to the Supreme Court.[65]

Murphy did have at least two female companions of note. Ann Parker was frequently seen horseback riding with Murphy in Washington during his tenure as U.S. Attorney General, leading to speculation of a romance in the press. At the time of his death, Murphy was engaged to Joan Cuddihy; the wedding was scheduled for the following month.[67]

See also

Bibliography

General

  • Kevin Boyle (April 19, 2005). Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age. Holt Paperbacks.
    ISBN 978-0-8050-7933-3
    .
  • Sidney Fine (1975). Frank Murphy. University of Michigan Press.
    ISBN 978-0-472-32949-6.[A]
  • Melvin G. Holli (1999). The American Mayor: the best & the worst big-city leaders. Pennsylvania State University Press.
    ISBN 978-0-271-01877-5
    .
  • Howard, J. Woodford, Mr. Justice Murphy: A Political Biography (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968).
  • Greg Zipes. Justice and Faith: The Frank Murphy Story. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021.

Footnotes

  1. ^ This and a number of other books on Murphy by Fine are part of a list of 50 "essential" Michigan history books selected by noted historians. "50 essential Michigan History books". Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries. Archived from the original on November 16, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Archived from the original on April 15, 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  2. ISBN 9780472329489
    .
  3. ISBN 9780802870308.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  4. ISBN 9780814338162
    .
  5. ISBN 9781429900164
    .
  6. ^ The American Catholic Who's Who: Volume 5; Volumes 7-9; Volumes 11-20 (1960–1961)
  7. ^ Melvin G. Holli, The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders (Pennsylvania State UP, 1999), p. 4–11.
  8. ^ a b c "Frank W. Murphy, 1940-1949". supremecourthistory.org. Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 21, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  9. ^ "Article: Michigan Lawyers in History-Justice Frank Murphy, Michigan's Leading Citizen". Michbar.org. January 1, 1937. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  10. ^ a b "University of Michigan Law Quadrangle Notes on Frank Murphy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009.
  11. ^ Rapp, Linda. "Frank Murphy, 1890–1949". Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
  12. ^ Fine, Frank Murphy, The Detroit Years, p. 58.
  13. ^ Fine, Frank Murphy, The Detroit Years, p. 73.
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-472-32949-6. Archived
    from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  15. ISBN 978-0-415-94342-0. Archived
    from the original on May 15, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  16. ISBN 978-0-8050-7145-0. Archived
    from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  17. ^ "Ossian Haven Sweet". American National Biography. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
  18. ^ "Judge Frank Murphy's charge to the jury, People vs. Sweet". Famous American Trials. University of Missouri, Kansas City. Archived from the original on June 25, 2010.
  19. ^ "The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM)". Archived from the original on July 27, 2010. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  20. ^ "Leadership". The United States Conference of Mayors. November 23, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  21. ISBN 0-271-01876-3
    .
  22. ^ Holli, Melvin G. (1999). The American Mayor: The Best & the Worst Big-City Leaders. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Archived from the original on June 27, 2007. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
  23. ^ "Frank Murphy". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Archived from the original on September 21, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019 – via encyclopedia.com.
  24. ^ Connell, Mike (July 19, 2009). "Murphy: a judge – not a robot". Times Herald. Port Huron, MI. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  25. ^ Professor Neil Leighton, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan-Flint.
  26. ^ "Detroit News on the Flint UAW/GM sit-down strike". Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  27. ^ "The Sit-Down Strike at General Motors". Rearview Mirror. Detroit News. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012.
  28. ^ "Flint Sit-down strike end anniversary". Detroit Free Press. February 10, 2008.[full citation needed]
  29. ISBN 978-0-19-510468-4. Archived
    from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  30. ^ McMillion, Barry J.; Rutkus, Denis Steven (July 6, 2018). "Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2017: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 9, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  31. ^ "Supreme Court Historical Society on Hughes Court". Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on February 7, 2009.
  32. ^ "Supreme Court Historical Society on Stone Court". Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008.
  33. ^ "Supreme Court Historical Society on Vinson Court". Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008.
  34. ^ a b The Supreme Court Compendium - Two Centuries of Data, Decisions, and Developments
  35. ^ a b The Michigan Alumnus, Volumes 89-90 (1982)
  36. ^ Bloodlines - Recovering Hitler's Nuremberg Laws from Patton's Trophy to Public Memorial
  37. ^ The Lost History of the Capitol - The Hidden and Tumultuous Saga of Congress and the Capitol Building
  38. ^ See generally, Norris, Harold (1965). Mr. Justice Murphy and the Bill of Rights. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications; includes some of Murphy's opinions, as well as a biography.
  39. ^ a b Maveal, Gary (March 2000). "Michigan Lawyers in History: Justice Frank Murphy, Michigan's Leading Citizen". Michigan Bar Journal. 79: 368. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009.
  40. ^ Woodford, Howard J. Jr. (1968). Mr. Justice Murphy: A Political Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Archived from the original on March 7, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
  41. ISBN 978-0-19-507814-5
    – via Internet Archive.
  42. ISBN 978-0-19-507814-5
    – via Internet Archive.
  43. ^ Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co., 323 U.S. 192 (1944).
  44. ^ "Full text of Loving v. Virginia". 388 U.S. 1. Archived from the original on March 4, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2011 – via Findlaw.com.
  45. ^ Lopez, Ian F. Haney (February 1, 2007). "'A Nation of Minorities': Race, Ethnicity and Reactionary Colorblindness". Stanford Law Review. Archived from the original on January 12, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  46. ^ "Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court media on Frank Murphy". Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
  47. ^ Meyer, Zlati (January 24, 2009). "Murphy Unveils Anti-Nazi Effort". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014.
  48. ^ Catledge, Turner (July 22, 1944). "Truman Nominated for Vice Presidency". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  49. ^ "Franklin Roosevelt". American President, An Online Reference Resource. Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved November 18, 2008.
  50. ISBN 978-0-8133-2240-7 – via Google Books.[permanent dead link
    ‍]
  51. ^ "(Frank) Murphy's Law". Archived from the original on May 25, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  52. ^ Christensen, George A. "Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices". Yearbook 1983 Supreme Court Historical Society. 1983. Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court Historical Society: 17–30. Archived from the original on September 3, 2005. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  53. ^ "Wayne County Prosecutor's webpage". Archived from the original on January 31, 2009.
  54. ^ "Michigan Legal Milestones". Archived from the original on January 14, 2009.
  55. ^ "Carl Milles sculptures, Detroit News". Archived from the original on January 21, 2013.
  56. ^ Photograph of Carl Milles' The Hand of God Archived August 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, evidencing why it was put on top of a 24-foot (7.3 m) spire.
  57. ^ Lidén, Elisabeth (1986). Between Waters and Heaven: Carl Milles, Search for American Commissions. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International.
  58. ^ Zacharias, Pat (September 5, 1999). "The Monuments of Detroit". The Detroit News'. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  59. ^ "Bentley Historical Library". Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2008.
  60. ^ List of repositories of Murphy papers Archived August 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Note: this list does not mention the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library; nor does it mention a number of other sources otherwise referenced in this article. See also lists in Bibliography Archived September 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, including speeches and writings, of William Francis "Frank" Murphy, 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. See also "Federal Judicial Center: Frank Murphy". December 12, 2009. Archived from the original on May 30, 2010. Retrieved December 12, 2009.
  61. ^ "Frank Murphy Honor Society, University of Detroit honors Judge Julian Cook". Archived from the original on May 12, 2009.
  62. ^ "The Sweet Trials: University of Detroit Mercy". Archived from the original on June 20, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  63. ^ "Frank Murphy School". Archived from the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2009."List of Detroit Public Elementary Schools". Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
  64. ISBN 9780465015139
    .
  65. ^
    ISBN 9780465015139
    .
  66. ISBN 9780465015139
    .
  67. ^ "Justice Murphy Engaged to Wed". The Telegraph-Herald. July 24, 1949. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2020.

Further reading

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frank Murphy.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Detroit
1930–1933 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor-General of the Philippines
1933–1935 		Succeeded byas President of the Philippines
Preceded by Governor of Michigan
1937–1939 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
New office High Commissioner to the Philippines
1935–1936 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Governor of Michigan
1936, 1938 		Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by United States Attorney General
1939–1940 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Pierce Butler
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1940–1949 		Succeeded by
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