The Greatest Talker of His Time

Felix Frankfurter was an eloquent liberal champion of judicial restraint. Is it time for a reappraisal?

- By Justin Driver

In September 1953, with the Supreme Court only months away from rehearing oral argument in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice Felix Frankfurter received word while vacationing in Massachusetts that Chief Justice Fred Vinson had died suddenly of a heart attack. Returning to Washington so that he could attend Vinson's funeral, Frankfurter bumped into his former law clerk Philip Elman in Union Station. Frankfurter did not exactly appear staggered by grief. To the contrary, Elman observed the 5-foot-5 Frankfurter walking with a particular spring in his diminutive step. Vinson's unexpected departure might enable the Court to issue an effective decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools, an outcome that was, Frankfurter believed, well beyond the late chief justice's meager intellectual and leadership capabilities. Frankfurter gripped Elman by the arm, stared at him intently, and uncorked the following line: "Phil, this is the first solid piece of evidence I've ever had that there really is a God."