InsideGov

Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Louis Brandeis

Democratic appointee: Appointed by Woodrow Wilson (D)

Served 1916–1939 · 2 terms in the data

Confirmed 47–22

Biography

Louis Dembitz Brandeis was an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939. Brandeis was a leading figure in the antitrust movement at the turn of the 20th century, particularly in his resistance to the monopolization of the New England railroad.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Brandeis and the 11 justices who overlapped with Brandeis, 1937–1938

−4−20+2+419371938More conservativeMore liberalMcReynoldsButlerO. RobertsHughesBrandeisStoneReedFrankfurterDouglasBlack
  • Louis Brandeis
  • 95% credible interval
  • Peer, appointed by a Democrat
  • Peer, appointed by a Republican
  • Court median
How to read this

Martin–Quinn scores place each justice on a single liberal–conservative dimension, estimated from their votes across terms, with scores allowed to shift from one term to the next. Higher is more conservative. The shaded band is the credible interval: wider when the record is thin, especially in a justice’s first terms, and narrower as votes accumulate.

Where Brandeis sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−0.61−0.61

Brandeis’s range across terms

Served alongside Brandeis

11 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: Brandeis.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Harlan Stone1937–1938career average 0.01 versus Brandeis at −0.61Charles Hughes1937–1938career average 0.19 versus Brandeis at −0.61Benjamin Cardozo1937career average −1.59 versus Brandeis at −0.61Stanley Reed1937–1938career average 0.37 versus Brandeis at −0.61Felix Frankfurter1938career average 0.52 versus Brandeis at −0.61Hugo Black1937–1938career average −1.76 versus Brandeis at −0.61Owen Roberts1937–1938career average 1.52 versus Brandeis at −0.61George Sutherland1937career average 1.60 versus Brandeis at −0.61Pierce Butler1937–1938career average 2.23 versus Brandeis at −0.61William Douglas1938career average −4.70 versus Brandeis at −0.61James McReynolds1937–1938career average 3.50 versus Brandeis at −0.61

Scores: Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10:134–153, from mqscores.wustl.edu. Appointment data: Federal Judicial Center biographical directory. Biographies: Wikipedia, text abridged, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Portraits: public-domain images via Wikimedia Commons.