Robert H. Jackson

Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 ? October 9, 1954) was United States Attorney General (1940 - 1941) and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1941 - 1954). He was also the chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

Related Topics:
February 13 - 1892 - October 9 - 1954 - United States Attorney General - 1940 - 1941 - United States Supreme Court - Nuremberg Trials

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Born in Spring Creek Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania and raised in Frewsburg, New York, Jackson graduated from Frewsburg High School in 1909 and spent the next year as a post-graduate student attending Jamestown High School in Jamestown, New York. Jackson never attended college. At age 18, he went to work as an apprentice in a Jamestown law office, then attended Albany Law School, in Albany, New York, the oldest independent law school in the nation, completing the second (senior) year of its two-year course study. Jackson then returned to Jamestown to apprentice for his third year. He passed the New York Bar Exam in 1913 and set up practice in Jamestown, New York.

Related Topics:
Spring Creek Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania - Albany Law School - Albany, New York - New York - Bar Exam - 1913 - Jamestown, New York

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Jackson was appointed to federal office by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934. Jackson served initially as general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue (today's Internal Revenue Service). In 1936, Jackson became Assistant Attorney General heading the Department of Justice's Tax Division, and in 1937 he became Assistant Attorney General heading the Antitrust Division. In 1938, Jackson became United States Solicitor General, serving until January 1940 as the government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court.

Related Topics:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Internal Revenue Service - Assistant Attorney General - United States Solicitor General

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Jackson was appointed Attorney General by Roosevelt in 1940, replacing Frank Murphy. When Harlan Fiske Stone replaced the retiring Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice in 1941, Roosevelt appointed Jackson to the resulting vacant Associate's seat.

Related Topics:
Frank Murphy - Harlan Fiske Stone - Charles Evans Hughes - Chief Justice

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In 1943, Jackson authored the majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), which overturned a public school regulation making it mandatory to salute the flag and imposing penalties of expulsion and prosecution upon students that failed to comply.

Related Topics:
1943 - West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette - 319 U.S. 624

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In 1945, President Truman appointed Jackson, who took a leave of absence from the Supreme Court, to serve as U.S. chief of counsel for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. He helped draft the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal, which created the legal basis for the Nuremberg trials. He then served in Nuremberg, Germany, as United States chief prosecutor at the international Nuremberg trial. Jackson pursued his prosecutorial role with a great deal of vigor (for instance, referring in arguments to Hermann Göring as being "half militarist, half gangster"), but resigned his position as prosecutor after the first trial and returned to the U.S. in the midst of controversy.

Related Topics:
London Charter of the International Military Tribunal - Nuremberg trials - Germany - Hermann Göring

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Jackson had informally been promised the Chief Justiceship by Roosevelt; however, the seat came open while Jackson was in Germany, and FDR was no longer alive. President Truman was faced with two factions, one recommending Jackson for the seat, the other advocating Hugo Black. In an attempt to avoid controversy, Truman appointed Fred M. Vinson. Jackson blamed machinations by Black for his being passed over for the seat and publicly exposed some of Black's controversial behavior and feuding within the Court. The controversy was heavily covered in the press and cast the New Deal Court in a negative light.

Related Topics:
Truman - Hugo Black - Fred M. Vinson - New Deal

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Jackson died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 62 and was interred in Frewsburg, New York.

Related Topics:
Washington, D.C. - Frewsburg, New York

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One of Jackson's law clerks, William Rehnquist, was appointed to the Court in 1971 and became Chief Justice in 1986.

Related Topics:
Law clerk - William Rehnquist - 1971 - 1986

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Jackson was played by Alec Baldwin in the 2000 TNT television film Nuremberg.

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