Jackson, Robert Houghwout

(1892-1954)

   Born in Pennsylvania, Robert Jackson left high school at 18 to work in a law office and attended Albany Law School for two years. He was admitted to the bar in 1913 and subsequently set up a law practice in Jamestown, New York. His success as a lawyer in the state led to his appointment as general counsel in the Treasury Department office, the Internal Revenue Service. He became U.S. solicitor general in 1938 and attorney general in 1940. In 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Jackson to the Supreme Court, where he established a considerable reputation for the impressive style of his written arguments. His argument in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette was widely quoted as a defense of individual liberty, and the formula he outlined in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v Sawyer as a means of assessing the use of presidential power is still used. In 1945, Jackson was appointed chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. While he was in Germany, President Harry S. Truman made Fred Vinson chief justice, and Jackson felt he had been passed over because of the influence of fellow justice Hugo Black. Their public animosity reflected badly on the court and tarnished an otherwise outstanding reputation.