Louis Brandeis

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Lore & Background

Louis Brandeis was born on November 13, 1856, in Louisville, Kentucky, the youngest of four children, and raised in a secular Jewish household. His parents, Adolph Brandeis and Frederika Dembitz, immigrated to the United States from their childhood homes in Prague in Bohemia, Austrian Empire. His earliest childhood was shaped by the American Civil War, which forced the family to seek safety temporarily in Indiana. The Brandeis family held abolitionist beliefs that angered their Louisville neighbors. Louis graduated from the Louisville Male High School at age 14 with the highest honors. When he was 16, the Louisville University of the Public Schools awarded him a gold medal for "excellence in all his studies." After a period spent traveling, he spent two years studying at the Annenschule in Dresden, Germany, where he excelled. Returning to the U.S. in 1875, Brandeis entered Harvard Law School at the age of 18. He graduated in 1877 as valedictorian and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Brandeis achieved the highest grade point average in the history of the school, a record that stood for eight decades. Starting in 1890, Brandeis helped develop the "right to privacy" concept by writing a Harvard Law Review article. In his books, articles, and speeches, he criticized the power of large banks, money trusts, powerful corporations, monopolies, public corruption, and mass consumerism. He also spoke in favor of syndicalist reforms like co-determination, workplace democracy and multi-stakeholder businesses. He later became active in the Zionist movement, seeing it as a solution to antisemitism in Europe, while at the same time being a way to "revive sense of the Jewish spirit." He was later dubbed the "People's Lawyer." The Economist newspaper called him "A Robin Hood of the law." Among his notable early cases were actions fighting railroad monopolies, defending workplace and labor laws, helping create the Federal Reserve System, and presenting ideas for the new Federal Trade Commission. He achieved recognition by submitting a case brief, later called the "Brandeis brief", which relied on expert testimony from people in other professions to support his case, thereby setting a new precedent in evidence presentation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Brandeis to a seat on the Supreme Court. His nomination was bitterly contested, partly because, as Justice William O. Douglas later wrote, "Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible ... [and] the fears of the Establishment were greater because Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Court." The Senate confirmed Brandeis by a vote of 47 to 22, making him the first Jewish U.S. Supreme Court justice. Brandeis's opinions were, according to legal scholars, some of the "greatest defenses" of freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever written by a member of the Supreme Court.

Reader's Guide

Louis Brandeis's significance lies in his dual impact on American law and public policy. As a Supreme Court justice from 1916 to 1939, his opinions are regarded by legal scholars as some of the "greatest defenses" of freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever written by a member of the Supreme Court. Before his appointment, he pioneered the "right to privacy" concept in a 1890 Harvard Law Review article, which legal scholar Roscoe Pound said added "a chapter to our law." His "Brandeis brief" introduced a new method of evidence presentation by incorporating expert testimony from people in other professions, setting a new precedent for legal argumentation. Brandeis was a leading figure in the antitrust movement, particularly against railroad monopolies, and his anti-monopolistic jurisprudence later laid the intellectual foundation for the New Brandeis movement. He also advocated for syndicalist reforms such as co-determination, workplace democracy, and multi-stakeholder businesses. His nomination as the first Jewish Supreme Court justice was bitterly contested, with the Senate confirming him by a vote of 47 to 22. His legacy includes contributions to the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as his later Zionist activism, which he saw as a response to European antisemitism and a way to "revive sense of the Jewish spirit."

Did You Know?

• Brandeis graduated from Louisville Male High School at age 14 with the highest honors.
• He achieved the highest grade point average in the history of Harvard Law School, a record that stood for eight decades.
• The Senate confirmed his Supreme Court nomination by a vote of 47 to 22, making him the first Jewish U.S. Supreme Court justice.
• Legal scholar Roscoe Pound credited Brandeis with having accomplished 'nothing less than adding a chapter to our law' for his work on the right to privacy.
• The Economist newspaper called Brandeis 'A Robin Hood of the law.'