Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the United States Supreme Court attains his seventy-second birthday today.
The New York “Evening World,” writing editorially on his anniversary, yesterday declared: “On the seventysecond anniversary of his birth tomorrow millions of Americans will be grateful to Louis D. Brandeis, Justice of the Supreme Court, because of his great services to the Republic and the cause of liberalism throughout a long and brilliant career. It is unfortunate that more lawyers of the calibre and character of Brandeis cannot be found for the highest judicial tribunal. His superb mind, the quickness of his conscience, his devotion to the cause of man, combined to make him stand out among members of his profession as one willing to plead the cause of the public in controversies where powerful combinations were on the other side. No one ever accused him of demagogy; no one ever intimated that he did not stand for the protection of all the legal rights of property; but no one ever suspected him capable of devoting his great ability to foes of public welfare merely because of the fat fee.
“Thus there was some opposition to his confirmation when he was named a member of the Supreme Court by Woodrow Wilson, due entirely to the liberality of his views. In his years upon the bench he has disappointed none of his admirers, and, along with Justice Holmes, his opinions command special respect. He had been an ornament of his profession and he is now an honor to the tribunal with which he sits. It is to be hoped that he may be spared many years for the continuance of his labors. He has had few intellectual peers in the long line of able jurists of the Supreme Court.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
