New Books in Law Brad Snyder, "Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment" (Norton, 2022)
Sep 28, 2025
Brad Snyder, a legal historian and professor at Georgetown University, delves into the life of Felix Frankfurter, a pivotal figure at the Supreme Court. He challenges conventional views, depicting Frankfurter as a pro-civil rights liberal who upheld judicial restraint, advocating for change through democracy. Snyder discusses Frankfurter's relationships with presidents, his controversial involvement in landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education, and the enduring relevance of his judicial philosophy amidst modern challenges.
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Judicial Restraint After The Crisis
- Frankfurter rejected simple liberal/conservative labels and urged judicial restraint after the 1937 constitutional crisis.
- He believed courts should defer to elected branches and avoid substituting judicial policymaking for democracy.
Skepticism Of Footnote Four
- Frankfurter disliked Stone's 'footnote four' because its categories felt amorphous and risked expanding judicial discretion.
- He and Hugo Black both rejected the vagueness of the proposed exceptions, though for different reasons.
Two Paths To Limiting Courts
- Black and Frankfurter both sought to limit judicial discretion but favored different methods: total incorporation versus selective, precedent-based incorporation.
- Their shared goal masked deep methodological differences about how to bind judges.
