Fred M. Vinson
Fred M. Vinson | |
---|---|
U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky | |
In office January 24, 1924 – March 3, 1929 | |
Preceded by | William J. Fields |
Succeeded by | Elva R. Kendall |
Constituency | 9th district |
In office March 4, 1931 – May 27, 1938 | |
Preceded by | Elva R. Kendall |
Succeeded by | Joe B. Bates |
Constituency | 9th district (1931–1933) 8th district (1933–1938) |
Personal details | |
Born | Frederick Moore Vinson January 22, 1890 Louisa, Kentucky, U.S. |
Died | September 8, 1953 Washington, D.C., U.S. | (aged 63)
Resting place | Pinehill Cemetery, Louisa, Kentucky, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Julia Dixon (m. 1924) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Centre College (BA, LLB) |
Signature | |
Frederick "Fred" Moore Vinson (January 22, 1890 – September 8, 1953) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 13th
Born in Louisa, Kentucky, Vinson pursued a legal career and served in the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, he served as the Commonwealth's Attorney for the Thirty-Second Judicial District of Kentucky before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1924. He lost re-election in 1928 but regained his seat in 1930 and served in Congress until 1937. During his time in Congress, he became an adviser and confidante of Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Vinson to be a judge on the D.C. Circuit. Vinson resigned from the appellate court in 1943, when he became the Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization. After Truman acceded to the presidency following Roosevelt's death in 1945, Truman appointed Vinson to the position of Secretary of the Treasury. Vinson negotiated the payment of the Anglo-American loan and presided over the establishment of numerous post-war organizations, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (commonly called the World Bank) and the International Monetary Fund.
After the death of Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone in 1946, Truman appointed Vinson to the Supreme Court. Vinson dissented in the case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, which ruled against the Truman administration's control of the nation's steel mills during a strike. He ordered a rehearing of the Briggs v. Elliott case, which was eventually combined into the case known as Brown v. Board of Education.
As of 2024, Vinson is the last chief justice to have been appointed by a Democratic president.
Early years
Vinson, known universally as Fred, was born in the newly built, eight-room, red brick house in front of the
Vinson joined the Army during
United States Representative from Kentucky
In 1924, Vinson ran in a special election for
While he was in Congress he befriended
In 1930, former congressman Vinson moved his law practice from Louisa, Kentucky thirty miles north to Ashland. With aspirations to return to Washington, D.C. as congressman, Vinson formed a circle of Ashland friends who could aid him politically and professionally. This group included his next door neighbor Paul G. Blazer.[6] Vinson returned to Washington, D.C. as congressman in 1931. Vinson would become a frontline supporter of President Roosevelt and his cabinet's New Deal revolution.[7]
United States Court of Appeals
Vinson was nominated by President
Secretary of the Treasury
Vinson resigned from the bench to become Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization, an executive agency charged with fighting inflation.[citation needed] He also spent time as Federal Loan Administrator (March 6 to April 3, 1945) and director of War Mobilization and Reconversion (April 4 to July 22, 1945).[citation needed] He was appointed United States Secretary of the Treasury by President Truman and served from July 23, 1945, to June 23, 1946.[citation needed]
His mission as Secretary of the Treasury was to stabilize the American economy during the last months of the war and to adapt the United States financial position to the drastically changed circumstances of the postwar world.[citation needed] Before the war ended, Vinson directed the last of the great war-bond drives.[citation needed]
At the end of the war, he negotiated payment of the
Chief Justice
Vinson was
In his time on the Supreme Court, he wrote 77 opinions for the court and 13 dissents. His most dramatic dissent was when the court voided President Truman's seizure of the steel industry during a strike in a June 3, 1952, decision, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer.[citation needed] His final public appearance at the court was when he read the decision not to review the conviction and death sentence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.[citation needed] After Justice William O. Douglas granted a stay of execution to the Rosenbergs at the last moment, Chief Justice Vinson sent special flights out to bring vacationing justices back to Washington in order to ensure the execution of the Rosenbergs.[citation needed] During his tenure as Chief Justice, one of his law clerks was future Associate Justice Byron White.[citation needed]
The major issues his court dealt with included
When Secretary of State Dean Acheson came under fire from congressional Republicans for being "soft on communism" at the end of 1950 Vinson was briefly mentioned as the possible replacement as Secretary of State, which would have required his resignation from the court.[12] This, however, did not come about.
As Chief Justice, Vinson swore in Truman (in 1949) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (in 1953) as President.
Death and legacy
Vinson died on September 8, 1953, of a heart attack at his Washington home. His body was interred in Pinehill Cemetery in Louisa, Kentucky.[13][14]
An extensive collection of Vinson's personal and judicial papers is archived at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where they are available for research.[citation needed]
A portrait of Vinson hangs in the hallway of the chapter house of the Kentucky Alpha-Delta chapter of Phi Delta Theta (ΦΔΘ) international fraternity, at Centre College.[citation needed] Vinson was a member of the chapter in his years at Centre.[citation needed] Affectionately known as "Dead Fred", the portrait is taken by fraternity members to Centre football and basketball games and other events.[citation needed]
The Fred M. Vinson Birthplace, in Louisa, Kentucky, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[citation needed]
See also
- Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Chief Justice)
- United States Supreme Court cases during the Vinson Court
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e For biographical details see Hatcher (1967).
- ^ "Fred M. Vinson". Oyez. Archived from the original on 2017-02-11. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
- ^ St. Clair, James E.; Gugin, Linda C. (2002). Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 13–14.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Frederick Moore Vinson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- ^ Alonzo L. Hamby (1973). Beyond the New Deal: Harry S.Truman and American Liberalism. Columbia University Press. pp. 481–482.
- ^ St. Clair & Gugin 2002, p. 48.
- ^ St. Clair & Gugin 2002, p. 66.
- ^ Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (1993), p. 330.
- ^ Video: Big Four Turns Down Austria on Tyrol, 1946/06/24 (1946). Universal Newsreel. 1946. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
- ^ a b James E. St. Clair and Linda C. Gugin, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography Archived 2020-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, p. 169-171.
- ^ Vinson michaelariens.com [dead link]
- ^ "Democrats 'Hope' In Acheson Case", Spokane Chronicle (December 18, 1950), p. 2.
- ^ Christensen, George A. (1983). "Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices". Supreme Court Historical Society 1983 Yearbook. Archived from the original on September 3, 2005.
- ^ Christensen, George A. (February 19, 2008). "Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited". Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17 - 41. University of Alabama.
Further reading
- Abraham, Henry J., Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
- Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies,1789-1995 (2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001) ISBN 978-1-56802-126-3.
- Frank, John P., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions (Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors) (Chelsea House Publishers: 1995) ISBN 978-0-7910-1377-9.
- Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-19-505835-2.
- HATCHER, JOHN HENRY. "FRED VINSON: CONGRESSMAN FROM KENTUCKY, A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY: 1890-1938" (PhD dissertation, University of Cincinnati ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1967. 6715964).
- Martin, Fenton S. and Goehlert, Robert U., The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography, (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990). ISBN 0-87187-554-3.
- Pritchett, C. Herman, Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court. (The ISBN 0-226-68443-1.
- St. Clair, James E., and Gugin, Linda C., Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography (ISBN 978-0-8131-2247-2.
- Symposium, In Memoriam: Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, 49 Northwestern University Law Review 1–75, (1954).
- Urofsky, Melvin I., Division and Discord: The Supreme Court under Stone and Vinson, 1941-1953 (University of South Carolina Press, 1997) ISBN 1-57003-120-7.
- Urofsky, Melvin I., The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Garland Publishing 1994). 590 pp. ISBN 978-0-8153-1176-8.
External links
- Frederick Moore Vinson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- "Frederick Moore Vinson". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Frederick Moore Vinson Sr. at Find a Grave
- Biography, at the U.S. Treasury Office of the Curator.
- Truman Presents Supreme Court Chief Justice Vinson With Historic Gavel, 1948 Shapell Manuscript Foundation
- Chief Justice Vinson Dies of Heart Attack, The New York Times, September 8, 1953.
- Obituary, The New York Times, September 9, 1953, Vinson Excelled In Federal Posts.
- Oyez Project, Fred M. Vinson, United States Supreme Court.
- Supreme Court Historical Society, The Vinson Court.