Felix Frankfurter

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History & Society

Felix Frankfurter

United States jurist

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 4, 2024 • Article History

Felix Frankfurter

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Category: History & Society

Born:: Nov. 15, 1882, Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Died:: Feb. 22, 1965, Washington, D.C., U.S. (aged 82)

Title / Office:: Supreme Court of the United States (1939-1962), United States

Founder:: American Civil Liberties Union

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Felix Frankfurter (born Nov. 15, 1882, Vienna, Austria-Hungary—died Feb. 22, 1965, Washington, D.C., U.S.) was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1939–62), a noted scholar and teacher of law, who was in his time the high court’s leading exponent of the doctrine of judicial self-restraint. He held that judges should adhere closely to precedent, disregarding their own opinions, and decide only “whether legislators could in reason have enacted such a law.” Frankfurter was the son of a Jewish merchant who left Vienna for New York in 1893. Young Frankfurter was educated at the City College of New ...(100 of 603 words)

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