Justice Jackson Accomplishments

Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson was one of the most influential and intelligent Americans to have ever sat on the bench. His service to America is often overlooked and he deserves the most highly regarded respect. Justice Robert Jackson had a humble and modest beginning. Justice Jackson did not attend law school and passed the bar at the age of twenty-one. He practiced law for many years before being appointed a position in Washington D.C. Impressively, Justice Jackson has been the only person to have ever held the three offices of solicitor attorney general, attorney general, and Supreme Court Justice. While on the bench, Justice Jackson influenced our country through being an outstanding lawyer, writer and constitutional interpreter.

Justice Jackson, “voted in more than 1,400 cases and wrote 318 opinions: 149 majority opinions, 36 concurring opinions, and 112 deserting opinions” (Domnarksi 29). All of these opinions pointed toward his judicial philosophy dominated in judicial restraint. In the time of the New Deal, Justice Jackson had used judicial restraint and developed a position of judicial deference to congressional legislation, especially when it involved economic and personal liberties legislation. He also emphasized judicial restraint when it came to the first and fourteenth amendment, where he did rejected the total incorporation theory, but believed it should include certain Liberties. One example can be seen through his decision of the Second Flag Salute Case, where Justice Jackson said the preferred position doctrine was involved when deciding this First Amendment cases. He believed that the fourteenth amendment incorporated certain rights that the states cannot infringe on. Justice Jackson said in his opinion, “But freedoms of speech and press, of assembly, and of worship may not be infringed on” (Domnarksi 32). In West Virginia State Board of Education V. Barnette, Justice Jackson clearly points out his support in judicial restraint from establishing precedent involving freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Taking on this role in the Nuremberg trials required him to “determining the crimes with which the Nazi leaders would be charged, establishing the judicial procedures to be used, choosing a site for the trial, working out staggering logistic al problems created by many languages and represented countries, and actually trying the case” (Domnarksi 27). Justice Jackson had a particular gift of being able to identify a dramatic moment and capitalize on it. One moment of this came at the end of the Nuremberg trials during his closing argument. He started the statement with comparing the Hitler to Shakespeare’s Richard III and then finished the beautiful statement by saying, “If you were to say of these men hat they are not guilty, it would be as true to say there has been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime” (E. London 506). Justice Jackson successfully prosecuted the Nazi war criminals in a system that had never before been established. Not only was this an accomplishment for himself individually, but it was a positive impact on America and the