This past month marked the 59th anniversary of the passing of one of America's greatest Supreme Court Justices. Given the central role the high court continues to play in our nation's daily life, it is important to once again revisit the insight, commentary, and legacy of the late Felix Frankfurter.
One of his more prescient comments, "Government is itself an art, one of the subtlest of arts. It is neither business, nor technology, nor applied science. It is the art of making men live together in peace and reasonable happiness..." is as relevant today as it was then.
This insight into our democracy from one of the most respected Supreme Court Justices to sit on the high court is a message that is being lost in our current political debate. With the 2024 presidential election cycle already upon us, it is time to revisit Frankfurter's instructions offered during his judicial tenure that spanned from the late 1930s through the early 1960s.
Frankfurter was born in Vienna of Jewish parents who recognized the enormous opportunities America offered and promptly emigrated. Growing up on the Lower East Side of New York, he would eventually graduate first in his Harvard Law class.
In their review of his observations about government, legal scholars suggest that Frankfurter believed that the American people, rather than unelected judges, should direct outcomes that would lead to a society where Americans could "live together...in peace and reasonable happiness."
Scholars further write that Frankfurter believed in the "theory of judicial restraint, which prevents judges from invalidating democratic legislation even if they believe it might be unconstitutional."
Pundits may try to pin a political label on the late justice but he seems to have been guided by his own legal "north star" as to what was right and proper under the Constitution. He never claimed to be a member of any political party. For example, while he was often called a progressive appointed to the court by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he is described as skeptical of any number of FDR's social initiatives.
Today's environment for political discourse would likely be appalling to the Justice, especially the destruction of free speech on college campuses where conservative voices are drowned out with confrontation.
Frankfurter once wrote:
"Ultimately there can be no freedom for self unless it is vouch-safed for others; there can be no security where there is fear, and a democratic society presupposes confidence and candor in the relations of men with one another and eager collaboration for the larger ends of life instead of the pursuit of petty, selfish or vainglorious aims."
At a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to rule on historic legal debates, Frankfurter's wisdom is a guide for the rational, restrained and equal application of the law. Without it we will never realize a nation where "men live together in peace and reasonable happiness." Our current Justices would be wise to heed the words more relevant today than perhaps at any time in our nation's history.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
