Brandeis, Louis D.

Description

Type: Signature
Description: (1856-1941) Kentucky-born lawyer, eminent Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 1916-39, 1st “Jewish Justice.”

Son of Bohemian Jewish immigrant parents, raised in a secular Louisville home, graduated from Harvard Law at 20 with the highest grade average in school history. Settling in Boston, he founded a law firm and became recognized for his work on progressive social causes. Starting in 1890, he helped develop the “right to privacy” concept by writing a Harvard Law Review article with that title. He later published “Other People’s Money and How the Banks Use It”, suggesting ways of curbing the power of large banks and money trusts. He fought powerful corporations, monopolies, public corruption, and mass consumerism, which he felt were detrimental to American values and culture.

He was an active Zionist, seeing it as a solution to European and Russian anti-Semitism and a way to “revive the Jewish spirit”. After his family’s finances became secure, he devoted most of his time to public causes, dubbed the “People’s Lawyer”, bringing actions against railroad monopolies, defending workplace and labor laws, helping create the Federal Reserve System, and presenting ideas for the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

He achieved recognition by submitting a case brief (“the “Brandeis Brief”) which relied on expert testimony from people in other professions to support his case, setting a precedent in evidence presentation. In 1916, President Wilson nominated him to the Supreme Court, his nomination bitterly contested because of his positions on social justice as well as his religion. He became one of the most famous and influential figures ever to serve on the high court.

Signed 4 1/2 x 7 1/2 autograph album page (in-person signature), accompanied by unsigned b&w bust portrait in judicial robes for framing.

Condition: Very good