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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Felix Frankfurter

Democratic appointee: Appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)

Served 1939–1962 · 24 terms

Confirmed by voice vote

Biography

Felix Frankfurter was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Frankfurter and the 23 justices who overlapped with Frankfurter, 1938–1961

−6−4−20+2+419401945195019551960More conservativeMore liberalHarlanFrankfurterWhittakerBurtonR. JacksonReedClarkStewartWhiteBrennanMurphyWarrenBlackDouglas
  • Felix Frankfurter
  • 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 Frankfurter sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−1.361.80

Frankfurter’s range across terms

Served alongside Frankfurter

23 justices

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

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Tom Clark1949–1961career average 0.47 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Byron White1961career average 0.44 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Potter Stewart1958–1961career average 0.40 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Stanley Reed1938–1956career average 0.37 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Robert Jackson1941–1953career average 0.70 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Charles Hughes1938–1940career average 0.19 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Harold Burton1945–1958career average 1.00 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Harlan Stone1938–1945career average 0.01 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Frederick Vinson1946–1952career average 1.03 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Sherman Minton1949–1956career average 1.10 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Charles Whittaker1956–1961career average 1.17 versus Frankfurter at 0.52James Byrnes1941career average −0.18 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Owen Roberts1938–1944career average 1.52 versus Frankfurter at 0.52John Harlan1954–1961career average 1.62 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Louis Brandeis1938career average −0.61 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Pierce Butler1938career average 2.23 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Earl Warren1953–1961career average −1.26 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Wiley Rutledge1942–1948career average −1.42 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Frank Murphy1939–1948career average −1.59 versus Frankfurter at 0.52Hugo Black1938–1961career average −1.76 versus Frankfurter at 0.52William Brennan1956–1961career average −1.78 versus Frankfurter at 0.52James McReynolds1938–1940career average 3.50 versus Frankfurter at 0.52William Douglas1938–1961career average −4.70 versus Frankfurter at 0.52

How Frankfurter voted

Every argued case Frankfurter took part in, newest first, with how Frankfurter voted in each: with the majority, in dissent, or in an equally divided Court. A Liberal or Conservative tag is the Supreme Court Database’s coding of who prevailed in the case, not a rating of the justices.

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    Data notes

    The Decisions page’s argued cases with this justice’s vote from the Supreme Court Database. “Majority” includes a concurrence; a vote that dissented in part is coded by the side the justice took overall. Cases the justice sat out and equally divided cases are left out of the percentages. “Wrote” means authored an opinion. Source: Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.).

    Report a correction

    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.