Description:

Frankfurter Felix

 

Felix Frankfurter ALS Re: Constitution

 

Felix Frankfurter, Autograph Letter Signed, to Dorothy Wonderly Smith McAllister, July [18?], 1946, New Milford, Connecticut. 3 pp., 4.5" x 7". On Supreme Court of the United States letterhead. Expected folds; very good.

 

Justice Frankfurter thanks Equal Rights Amendment opponent Dorothy McAllister for her efforts. On March 5, 1946, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported the Equal Rights Amendment to the full Senate. On July 19, the Senators voted 38 to 35 in favor of the proposal, short of the necessary two-thirds vote.

 

Complete Transcript
      New Milford, Conn

      18.7.46

Dear Mrs. McAllister:
 This note goes to you on the assumption that thanks are never too late - tho I must add an appeal to your generous indulgence.
 Long since I should have acknowledged your thoughtfulness in sending me a copy of Professor Freund’s admirable statement and now I can add my congratulations to you for your effective leadership in defeating the vicious proposal to write if not injustice then mischievous ambiguity (see Senator Pepper’s speech – it’s really not worthy of him!) into the Constitution. For this much – much thanks. But I cannot refrain sadness that such an indefensible proposal should have secured a majority of votes! I’m afraid you still have a long & arduous task ahead – pathetic as the supporting speeches were.
 I hope that you and your husband have had some summer refreshment. My cordial regards to both of you.
      Very sincerely,
      Felix Frankfurter

 

Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965) was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, and immigrated to New York City in 1894. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1902 and from Harvard Law School. In 1906, he began working for Henry Stimson, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. When President William Howard Taft appointed Stimson as Secretary of War in 1911, Stimson appointed Frankfurter as an assistant. From 1913 to 1917, he taught administrative law at Harvard Law School, but took a leave during World War I to serve as special assistant to the secretary of war and as Judge Advocate General. After the war with encouragement from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Frankfurter became more involved in Zionist causes. In 1920, he helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1921, Frankfurter was given a chair at Harvard Law School. After Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election in 1932, Frankfurter became an adviser to the president. In 1938, Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter to the U.S. Supreme Court. After a tempestuous nomination process, Frankfurter received confirmation and served on the court from January 1939 to August 1962. He wrote 247 opinions for the court, 132 concurring opinions, and 251 dissents. An advocate of judicial restraint, he had an argumentative style that was not popular among his Supreme Court colleagues.

 

Dorothy Wonderly Smith McAllister (1899-1983) was born in Michigan and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1920. She married Thomas F. McAllister (1896-1976) in 1921, and they had two daughters. He served as a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1938 to 1941 and as judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1941 to his death. From 1937 to 1941, she served as the director of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee. She served as the chair of the National Committee to Defeat the UnEqual Rights Amendment, a group opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment. She also served as chair of the board of directors of the National Consumers’ League.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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