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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Robert Jackson

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

Served 1941–1954 · 13 terms

Confirmed by voice vote

Biography

Robert Houghwout Jackson was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1941 until his death in 1954. He had previously served as United States Solicitor General and United States Attorney General, and is the only person to have held all three of those offices.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

R. Jackson and the 14 justices who overlapped with R. Jackson, 1941–1953

−4−20+219451950More conservativeMore liberalReedBurtonMintonR. JacksonClarkFrankfurterWarrenBlackDouglas
  • Robert Jackson
  • 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 R. Jackson sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+40.141.29

R. Jackson’s range across terms

Served alongside R. Jackson

14 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: R. Jackson.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Felix Frankfurter1941–1953career average 0.52 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Tom Clark1949–1953career average 0.47 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Harold Burton1945–1953career average 1.00 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Stanley Reed1941–1953career average 0.37 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Frederick Vinson1946–1952career average 1.03 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Sherman Minton1949–1953career average 1.10 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Harlan Stone1941–1945career average 0.01 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Owen Roberts1941–1944career average 1.52 versus R. Jackson at 0.70James Byrnes1941career average −0.18 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Earl Warren1953career average −1.26 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Wiley Rutledge1942–1948career average −1.42 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Frank Murphy1941–1948career average −1.59 versus R. Jackson at 0.70Hugo Black1941–1953career average −1.76 versus R. Jackson at 0.70William Douglas1941–1953career average −4.70 versus R. Jackson at 0.70

How R. Jackson voted

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