Louis Brandeis (1856–1941,) fully Louis Dembitz Brandeis, was an American lawyer and Supreme Court associate justice 1916–39. The first Jew to sit on the high court, he is remembered as a conscious and thoughtful judge.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Brandeis was educated at Dresden and Harvard and practiced in Boston. He gained an early reputation as the “people’s attorney” by defending Boston residents seeking regulation of local public utilities without a fee. He conducted many labor arbitrations and was frequently involved in challenging the power of monopolies and cartels and cases concerning the constitutionality of maximum hours and minimum wage legislation.
Brandeis formulated the New Freedom Economic doctrine adopted by President Woodrow Wilson for his 1912 presidential campaign. Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1916, he favored governmental intervention to control the economy where public interest required it and was also a strong defender of private property rights. He supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation.
Brandeis was famous for his “Brandeis briefs,” which emphasized social facts than precedent and general arguments. Brandeis University at Waltham, Massachusetts, is named after him.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Louis Brandeis
America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.
—Louis Brandeis
If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.
—Louis Brandeis
No individual should be subjected anywhere, by reason of the fact that he is a Jew, to a denial of any common right or opportunity enjoyed by non-Jews.
—Louis Brandeis
Topics: Jews
Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.
—Louis Brandeis
Topics: Invention, Determination, Optimism, Discovery
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
—Louis Brandeis
Organization can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgment.
—Louis Brandeis
Topics: Judgment, Organization
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.
—Louis Brandeis
Topics: Government
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