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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Frank Murphy

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

Served 1940–1949 · 10 terms

Confirmed by voice vote

Biography

William Francis Murphy was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Harbor Beach, Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving as United States Attorney General, 35th governor of Michigan, and Mayor of Detroit. He also served as the last American Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner to the Philippines.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Murphy and the 13 justices who overlapped with Murphy, 1939–1948

−4−20+2+419401945More conservativeMore liberalR. JacksonBurtonVinsonReedFrankfurterMurphyBlackDouglasRutledge
  • Frank Murphy
  • 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 Murphy sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−1.78−1.41

Murphy’s range across terms

Served alongside Murphy

13 justices

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

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Hugo Black1939–1948career average −1.76 versus Murphy at −1.59Wiley Rutledge1942–1948career average −1.42 versus Murphy at −1.59James Byrnes1941career average −0.18 versus Murphy at −1.59Harlan Stone1939–1945career average 0.01 versus Murphy at −1.59Charles Hughes1939–1940career average 0.19 versus Murphy at −1.59Stanley Reed1939–1948career average 0.37 versus Murphy at −1.59Felix Frankfurter1939–1948career average 0.52 versus Murphy at −1.59Robert Jackson1941–1948career average 0.70 versus Murphy at −1.59Harold Burton1945–1948career average 1.00 versus Murphy at −1.59Frederick Vinson1946–1948career average 1.03 versus Murphy at −1.59William Douglas1939–1948career average −4.70 versus Murphy at −1.59Owen Roberts1939–1944career average 1.52 versus Murphy at −1.59James McReynolds1939–1940career average 3.50 versus Murphy at −1.59

How Murphy voted

Every argued case Murphy took part in, newest first, with how Murphy 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.