Thomas Gardiner Corcoran

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Tommy Corcoran
LLB, SJD)
Political partyDemocratic

Thomas Gardiner Corcoran (December 29, 1900 – December 6, 1981) was an Irish-American legal scholar. He was one of several[1] advisors in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's brain trust during the New Deal, and later, a close friend and advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Early life and education

Corcoran was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on December 29, 1900. He matriculated at Brown University,[2] where he graduated as class valedictorian earning bachelor's and master's degrees in 1922. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating high in his class in 1926 and gaining the recognition of Felix Frankfurter. He earned his doctorate in law the next year. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.[3]

Early career

He clerked for Justice

United States Supreme Court from 1926 to 1927. In 1932, after practicing corporate law in New York City, Corcoran joined the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
. When Roosevelt began to take notice of his efforts, Corcoran was given a wider range of responsibilities than his official position as assistant general counsel allowed.

Roosevelt administration

Scott-Grant House, 3238 R Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. (2000). During the New Deal, two of President Roosevelt's Brain Trust, Benjamin Cohen and Thomas Corcoran, rented the house for themselves and other young lawyers who drafted the New Deal legislation.

Corcoran served as special counsel to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) from 1934 to 1941. During the same period, he was liaison to Henry Morgenthau, and represented him at RFC board of directors. As an ally of RFC Chairman Jesse H. Jones, Corcoran exercised power far beyond the authority of his office.[4] Corcoran was nicknamed "Tommy the Cork" by Roosevelt.

Felix Frankfurter had recommended many of his former Harvard Law students for work in the Roosevelt Administration, including Corcoran, leading the latter to be associated with a group known as "New Dealers." According to Alan Brinkley, many regarded him as an organizer of the New Dealers and a coordinator of the Washington bureaucracy.[5]

Much of his work during the

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.[8]

Later life

After leaving the White House, Corcoran retained enormous influence in the administration, in part because of high appointees who owed their positions to him. Corcoran went into private practice as a lawyer along with former

FCC
and a congressional investigation.

Corcoran's work after leaving government service led him to be dubbed the first of the modern lobbyists.[9] Corcoran's phones were tapped by the federal government between 1945 and 1947.[10] The transcripts of the wiretaps were deposited in the Truman Presidential Library and not released to researchers until Corcoran's death. The evidence is that a Truman White House aide ordered the tap, but it was then rescinded by President Harry S. Truman.[11]

It is also alleged that Corcoran engaged in improper attempts to influence decisions of the Supreme Court.[12]

Family

On March 4, 1940 Corcoran married his long-time secretary, Peggy Dowd.[13] She had originally been assigned to work for him at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1933. "Everyone was charmed by Peggy, who was bright and generous, except F.D.R. and Felix Frankfurter, who thought their protégé should not marry the daughter of an immigrant Washington mailman. Peggy told my mom that F.D.R. teasingly referring to her as 'our 'Gorgeous Hussy'".[14] The couple had six children.[15] Peggy Dowd Corcoran died in 1957 aged forty-four of a cerebral brain hemorrhage.[16]

Following in their father's footsteps, his son, Thomas G. Corcoran Jr., attended Brown University and Harvard Law School (class of 1967), before founding the Washington, D.C., law firm of Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe.[17] Oldest daughter, Margaret J. Corcoran, also graduated from Harvard Law School (class of 1965), and clerked for Associate Justice Hugo Black of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1966 Term (the second woman to clerk), while continuing to assist her father at social events.[18]

His granddaughter, Sara Corcoran, earned her undergraduate degree and MBA from the University of Southern California.[19] She is a legal journalist and is the publisher of The National Courts Monitor, a civil courts legal journal.[20]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0767906869
    .
  2. ^ "Thomas Corcoran '22," Government and Politics, Brown Alumni Magazine, November/December 2000. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  3. ^ "THOMAS G. CORCORAN, AIDE TO ROOSEVELT, DIES". The New York Times. December 7, 1981. Retrieved October 20, 2018.
  4. ISBN 0-691-04749-9
    .
  5. ^ Brinkley, Alan (1996). The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 50–51.
  6. ^ Gold Dust Twins. Time cover
  7. ^ "We're like Cohen and Corcoran. One of those beautiful friendships." Chapter 9.
  8. ^ Brinkley (1996), pp. 101–102.
  9. ISBN 9781586420864
    .
  10. ^ Lichtman, Allan J. (February 1987). "Tommy the Cork: the secret world of Washington's first modern lobbyist", Washington Monthly.
  11. ^ Harry S. Truman Papers: President's Secretary's Files
  12. ^ Woodward, Bob; Armstrong, Scott (1979). The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1439126348, ISBN 9781439126349. Google books
  13. ^ "CORCORAN MARRIES MARGARET DOWD; MARRIED IN VIRGINIA". The New York Times. 1940-03-05. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
  14. ^ Dowd, Maureen (2005-04-16). "F.D.R.'s 'Gorgeous Hussy'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
  15. ISBN 978-1-58642-068-0
    .
  16. ISBN 978-1-58642-068-0
    .
  17. ^ Biography for Thomas G. Corcoran, Jr., at Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe LLP. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  18. ^ "The Supreme Court: A Place for Women", Wilson Lecture presented by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Wellesley College, November 13, 1998 ("Black was not entirely pleased with Margaret's performance. He thought she didn't work hard enough. One time, for example, she told him she couldn't review 35 cert. petitions (petitions for Supreme Court review) over the weekend, because of plans to attend VIP dinners with her father. She was, in these extracurricular activities, a dutiful daughter. Corcoran was a widower and sometimes needed a substitute for a spouse at special events.") Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  19. ^ "Biography - Sara Warner". HuffPost. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  20. ^ "The National Courts Monitor". National Courts Monitor. Retrieved 15 August 2017.

Further reading

  • Janeway, Michael. The Fall of the House of Roosevelt Columbia University Press, 2004.
  • Schwarz, Jordan A. The New Dealers: Power politics in the age of Roosevelt (Vintage, 2011) pp 138–156. online

Media related to Thomas Gardiner Corcoran at Wikimedia Commons

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