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Felix Frankfurter

67 quotes

• “The Amendment nullifies sophisticated as well as simple-minded modes of discrimination.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On the Fifteenth Amendment; writing for the court, Lane v. Wilson, 307 U.S. 268, 275 (1939).

• “In this Court dissents have gradually become majority opinions.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, Graves v. New York ex rel. O'Keefe, 306 U.S. 446 (1939).

• “The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, Graves v. New York ex rel. O'Keefe, 306 U.S. 446 (1939).

• “To be effective, judicial administration must not be leaden-footed.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Cobbledick v. United States, 309 U.S. 323, 324 (1940).

• “It would be a narrow conception of jurisprudence to confine the notion of 'laws' to what is found written on the statute books, and to disregard the gloss which life has written upon it.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. v. Browning, 310 U.S. 362, 369 (1940).

• “National unity is the basis of national security. To deny the legislature the right to select appropriate means for its attainment presents a totally different order of problem from that of the propriety of subordinating the possible ugliness of littered streets to the free expression opinion through handbills.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940).

• “It must never be forgotten, however, that the Bill of Rights was the child of the Enlightenment. Back of the guarantee of free speech lay faith in the power of an appeal to reason by all the peaceful means for gaining access to the mind. It was in order to avert force and explosions due to restrictions upon rational modes of communication that the guarantee of free speech was given a generous scope. But utterance in a context of violence can lose its significance as an appeal to reason and become part of an instrument of force. Such utterance was not meant to be sheltered by the Constitution.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Writing for the court, Milk Wagon Drivers Union of Chicago, Local 753. v. Meadowmoor Dairies, Inc., 312 U.S. 287 (1941).

• “Of compelling consideration is the fact that words acquire scope and function from the history of events which they summarize.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Phelps Dodge Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 313 U.S. 177, 185-186 (1941).

• “Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Indianapolis v. Chase Nat'l Bank, 314 U.S. 63, 69 (1941).

• “The line must follow some direction of policy, whether rooted in logic or experience. Lines should not be drawn simply for the sake of drawing lines.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting in Pearce v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 315 U.S. 543, 558 (1942).

• “No court can make time stand still.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Writing for the court, Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 316 U.S. 4 (1942).

• “A phrase begins life as a literary expression; its felicity leads to its lazy repetition; and repetition soon establishes it as a legal formula, undiscriminatingly used to express different and sometimes contradictory ideas.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, Tiller v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co., 318 U.S. 54 (1943).

• “The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards. And the effective administration of criminal justice hardly requires disregard of fair procedures imposed by law.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Writing for the court, McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332 (1943). The quote part "The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards." was a "favorite quote" from U.S. Supr…

• “One who belongs to the most vilified and persecuted minority in history is not likely to be insensible to the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution... But as judges we are neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Catholic nor agnostic.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnett, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).

• “Is that which was deemed to be of so fundamental a nature as to be written into the Constitution to endure for all times to be the sport of shifting winds of doctrine?”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnett, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943).

• “After all, advocates, including advocates for States, are like managers of pugilistic and election contestants, in that they have a propensity for claiming everything.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: First Iowa Coop. v. Power Comm'n., 328 U.S. 152, 187 (1946).

• “In any event, mere speed is not a test of justice. Deliberate speed is. Deliberate speed takes time. But it is time well spent.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: First Iowa Coop. v. Power Comm'n., 328 U.S. 152, 188 (1946).

• “The course of decision in this Court has thus far jealously enforced the principle of a free society secured by the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. Its safeguards are not to be worn away by a process of devitalizing interpretation.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Davis v. United States, 328 U.S. 582, 597 (1946).

• “It is not only under Nazi rule that police excesses are inimical to freedom. It is easy to make light of insistence on scrupulous regard for the safeguards of civil liberties when invoked on behalf of the unworthy. It is too easy. History bears testimony that by such disregard are the rights of liberty extinguished, heedlessly at first, then stealthily, and brazenly in the end.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Davis v. United States, 328 U.S. 582, 597 (1946).

• “If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny. Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 312 (1946).

• “In law also the emphasis makes the song.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Board 330 U.S. 767, 780 (1947).

• “The Procrustean bed is not a symbol of equality. It is no less inequality to have equality among unequals.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting in New York v. United States, 331 U.S. 284, 353 (1947).

• “It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the appearance of weakness and vacillation.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Craig v. Harney, 331 U.S. 367, 392 (1947).

• “Decisions of this Court do not have equal intrinsic authority.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 59 (1947).

• “If one starts with the assumption that, in the absence of specific Congressional authority, a fixed rule of law precludes contracting officers from providing in a Government contract terms reasonably calculated to assure its performance even though there be no money loss through a particular default, there is no problem. But answers are not obtained by putting the wrong question and thereby begging the real one.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting, Priebe and Sons v. United States, 332 U.S. 407, 420 (1947).

• “If nowhere else, in the relation between Church and State, "good fences make good neighbors.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 232 (1948).

• “After all, this is the Nation's ultimate judicial tribunal, nor a super-legal-aid bureau.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissent, Uveges v. Pennsylvania, 335 U.S. 437 (1948).

• “The indispensable judicial requisite is intellectual humility.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, American Federation of Labor v. American Sash & Door Co., 335 U.S. 538 (1949).

• “A court which yields to the popular will thereby licenses itself to practice despotism, for there can be no assurance that it will not on another occasion indulge its own will.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, American Federation of Labor v. American Sash & Door Co., 335 U.S. 538, 557 (1949).

• “Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting, Henslee v. Union Planters National Bank & Trust Co., 335 U.S. 600 (1949).

• “Ambiguity lurks in generality and may thus become an instrument of severity.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co., 336 U.S. 187, 197 (1949).

• “There is torture of mind as well as body; the will is as much affected by fear as by force. And there comes a point where this Court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Watts v. Indiana, 338 U.S. 49, 52 (1949).

• “It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950).

• “It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, Dennis v. United States, 339 U.S. 162, 184 (1950).

• “The mark of a truly civilized man is confidence in the strength and security derived from the inquiring mind.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dennis v. United States, 241 U.S. 494, 556 (1951).

• “[It is anomalous] to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Writing for the court, Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165 (1952). The unanimous decision reversed the conviction of an alleged drug addict because evidence was obtained by forced stomach pumping.

• “The most constructive way of resolving conflicts is to avoid them.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, Western Pacific Railroad Corp. v. Western Pacific Railroad Co., 345 U.S. 247, 270 (1953).

• “A license cannot be revoked because a man is redheaded or because he was divorced, except for a calling, if such there be, for which redheadedness or an unbroken marriage may have some rational bearing. If a State licensing agency lays bare its arbitrary action, or if the State law explicitly allows it to act arbitrarily, that is precisely the kind of State action which the Due Process Clause forbids.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Barsky v. Board of Regents, 347 U.S. 442, 470 (1954).

• “Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: New York Times (November 28, 1954).

• “While it is not always profitable to analogize "fact" to "fiction," La Fontaine's fable of the crow, the cheese, and the fox demonstrates that there is a substantial difference between holding a piece of cheese in the beak and putting it in the stomach.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Alleghany Corp. v. Breswick & Co., 353 U.S. 151, 170 (1957).

• “Lincoln's appeal to "the better angels of our nature" failed to avert a fratricidal war. But the compassionate wisdom of Lincoln's first and second inaugurals bequeathed to the Union, cemented with blood, a moral heritage which, when drawn upon in times of stress and strife, is sure to find specific ways and means to surmount difficulties that may appear to be insurmountable.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Concurring, Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958).

• “Time and experience have forcefully taught that the power to inspect dwelling places, either as a matter of systematic area-by-area search or, as here, to treat a specific problem, is of indispensable importance in the maintenance of community health; a power that would be greatly hobbled by the blanket requirement of the safeguards necessary for a search of evidence of criminal acts.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Frank v. Maryland, 359 U.S. 360, 372 (1959); majority opinion in 5-4 ruling that allowed health inspectors to enter a private home without a search warrant (May 4, 1959).

• “Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Callanan v. United States, 364 U.S. 587, 594 (1961).

• “Convictions following the admission into evidence of confessions which are involuntary, i.e., the product of coercion, either physical or psychological, cannot stand. This is so not because such confessions are unlikely to be true but because the methods used to extract them offend an underlying principle in the enforcement of our criminal law: that ours is an accusatorial and not an inquisitorial system — a system in which the State must establish guilt by evidence independently and freely secured and may not by coercion prove its charges against an accused out of his own mouth.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 540-41 (1961).

• “In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting, Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962).

• “Appeal must be to an informed, civically militant electorate.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissenting, Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 270 (1962).

• “The eternal struggle in the law between constancy and change is largely a struggle between history and reason, between past reason and present needs.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Twenty Years of Mr. Justice Holmes' Constitutional Opinions, 36 HARV. L. REV. 909, 931 (1923).

• “In the first place, lawyers better remember they are human beings, and a human being who hasn't his periods of doubts and distresses and disappointments must be a cabbage, not a human being. That is number one.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Reported in Proceedings in honor of Mr. Justice Frankfurter and distinguished alumni at the meeting of the Council, Harvard Law School Association in Cambridge, April 30, 1960.

• “Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep. I can express with very limited adequacy the passionate devotion to this land that possesses millions of our people, born, like myself, under other skies, for the privilege that that this county has bestowed in allowing them to partake of its fellowship.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech accepting an award from the National Institute for Immigrant Welfare, Biltmore Hotel, New York (May 11, 1933).

• “No judge writes on a wholly clean slate.”

  Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Commerce Clause (1937), p. 12.

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