Owen Roberts | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office June 2, 1930 – July 31, 1945 | |
| Nominated by | Herbert Hoover |
| Preceded by | Edward Terry Sanford |
| Succeeded by | Harold Hitz Burton |
| 11th Dean of theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School | |
| In office September 1, 1948 – 1951 | |
| Preceded by | Earl G. Harrison |
| Succeeded by | Paul Brunton (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Owen Josephus Roberts (1875-05-02)May 2, 1875 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | May 17, 1955(1955-05-17) (aged 80) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | University of Pennsylvania (AB,LLB) |
Owen Josephus Roberts (May 2, 1875 – May 17, 1955) was anassociate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1930 to 1945.[1] He also led twoRoberts Commissions, the first of which investigated theattack on Pearl Harbor, and the second of which focused on works of cultural value duringWorld War II.
Born inPhiladelphia, Roberts graduated from theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School and pursued a legal career. After working as a district attorney in Philadelphia, he was appointed by PresidentCalvin Coolidge to investigate theTeapot Dome scandal. After the death of Associate JusticeEdward Terry Sanford in March 1930, PresidentHerbert Hoover nominatedJohn J. Parker to fill the vacancy on the court. The Senate rejected Parker and Hoover quicklynominated Roberts as his second choice for the vacancy. Roberts was easily confirmed and took his position on the court in May 1930.
On theHughes Court, Roberts was a swing vote positioned between the conservativeFour Horsemen and the liberalThree Musketeers. Along with Chief JusticeCharles Evans Hughes, Roberts's vote often decided whether PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt'sNew Deal legislation would be upheld. His decision to uphold the constitutionality of a state minimum wage law inWest Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish has been called "the switch in time that saved nine". That term references the decision's possible role in the defeat of theJudicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, which would haveexpanded the Supreme Court and thus allowed Roosevelt to appoint Justices more sympathetic to his policies. Roberts's motivation for upholding the constitutionality of the New Deal and his role in the defeat of the bill remains a matter of debate.
Though the bill was defeated, Roosevelt's long presidency allowed him to appoint most of the court. By the end of Roberts's tenure, he was the lone Supreme Court Justice who was not appointed by Roosevelt.[a] He was one of three Justices, along withRobert H. Jackson andFrank Murphy, to vote against Roosevelt's orders forJapanese American internment camps inKorematsu v. United States as well as the lone judge to dissent in the case ofSmith v. Allwright, which ruledwhite primaries unconstitutional. His relations with his colleagues on theStone Court became strained and he retired in 1945. Roberts served as the Dean of his alma mater, theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School, from 1948 to 1951. He died inChester County, Pennsylvania in 1955.
Roberts was born inPhiladelphia in 1875 and attendedGermantown Academy and enrolled at theUniversity of Pennsylvania at the age of 16 where he studiedGreek, was elected toPhi Beta Kappa[2] and was the editor ofThe Daily Pennsylvanian. He completed his bachelor's degree in 1895 and went on to graduatesumma cum laude and first in his class from theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School in 1898.[3] Upon his graduation, he continued his association with the University of Pennsylvania Law School for the next two decades, teachingcontracts andproperty law, and he also engaged in private legal practice. On March 1, 1912, Roberts and fellow Philadelphia lawyers William W. Montgomery Jr. andCharles L. McKeehan, founded the law firm Roberts, Montgomery & McKeehan, the predecessor of the law firm Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP.[4]
Roberts first gained notice as an assistant district attorney inPhiladelphia County, a position he would hold for three years. He was appointed by PresidentCalvin Coolidge to investigateoil reserve scandals, known as theTeapot Dome scandal. This led to the prosecution and conviction ofAlbert B. Fall, the formerSecretary of the Interior, for bribe-taking.
Roberts wasnominated by PresidentHerbert Hoover on May 9, 1930, as anassociate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of the Supreme Court, to succeedEdward Terry Sanford. Hoover selected Roberts after his previous nominee,John J. Parker, had been rejected by the Senate. In contrast to Parker, Roberts was confirmed by voice vote on May 20, 1930.[5] He took the judicial oath of office on June 2, 1930.[1]
On the Court, Roberts was a swing vote between those, led by JusticesLouis Brandeis,Benjamin Cardozo, andHarlan Fiske Stone, as well as Chief JusticeCharles Evans Hughes, who would allow a broader interpretation of theCommerce Clause to allow Congress to passNew Deal legislation that would provide for a more active federal role in the national economy, and theFour Horsemen (JusticesJames Clark McReynolds,Pierce Butler,George Sutherland, andWillis Van Devanter) who favored a narrower interpretation of the Commerce Clause and believed that theFourteenth AmendmentDue Process Clause protected a strong "liberty ofcontract".In 1936'sUnited States v. Butler, Roberts sided with the Four Horsemen and wrote an opinion striking down theAgricultural Adjustment Act as beyond Congress's taxing and spending powers.
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Roberts was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[6]
Roberts switched his position on the constitutionality of the New Deal in late 1936, and the Supreme Court handed downWest Coast Hotel v. Parrish in 1937, upholding the constitutionality of minimum wage laws. Subsequently, the Court would vote to uphold all New Deal programs. Since President Roosevelt's plan to appoint several new justices as part of his "Court-packing" plan of 1937 coincided with the Court's favorable decision in Parrish, many people called Roberts's vote in that case "The switch in time that saved nine," although Roberts's vote inParrish occurred several months before announcement of the Court-packing plan. While Roberts is often accused of inconsistency in his jurisprudential stance towards the New Deal, legal scholars note that he had previously argued for a broad interpretation of government power in the 1934 case ofNebbia v. New York, and so his later vote inParrish was not a complete reversal. Roberts, however, had sided with thefour conservative justices in finding a similar state minimum wage in New York unconstitutional[7] in June 1936. Because the announcement of the Parrish decision took place in March 1937, one month after Roosevelt announced his plan to pack the court, it created speculation that Roberts had voted in favor of Washington's state minimum wage law because he had succumbed to political pressure.
However, Chief JusticeCharles Evans Hughes contended in his autobiographical notes that Roosevelt's attempt to pack the court "had not the slightest effect" on the Court's ruling in the Parrish case[8] and records showed that Roberts indicated his desire to uphold Washington state's minimum wage law two months prior to Roosevelt's court-packing announcement in December 1936.[9] On December 19, 1936, two days after oral arguments ended for the Parrish case, Roberts voted in favor of Washington's state minimum wage law, but the Supreme Court was divided 4–4 because pro-New Deal Associate JusticeHarlan Fiske Stone was absent due to an illness;[9] Hughes contended that this long delay in the Parrish case's announcement led to false speculation that Roosevelt's court packing plan intimidated the Court into ruling in favor of the New Deal.[8] Roberts and Hughes both acknowledged that because of the overwhelming support that had been shown for the New Deal through Roosevelt's re-election in November 1936,[10] Hughes was able to persuade Roberts to no longer base his votes on his own political beliefs and side with him during future votes on New Deal related policies.[10][11] In one of his notes from 1936, Hughes wrote that Roosevelt's re-election forced the court to depart from "its fortress in public opinion" and severely weakened its capability to base its rulings on personal or political beliefs.[10]
Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the landmark case ofNew Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co.,303 U.S.552 (1938), which safeguarded the right toboycott in the context of the struggle by African Americans against discriminatory hiring practices. He also wrote the majority opinion sustaining provisions of the second Agricultural Adjustment Act applied to the marketing of tobacco inMulford v. Smith,307 U.S.38 (1939).
Roberts was appointed by Roosevelt to head thecommission investigating theattack on Pearl Harbor; his report was published in 1942 and was highly critical of theUS military. An antiwar journalist,John T. Flynn, wrote at the time that Roosevelt's appointment of Roberts[12]
was a master stroke. What the public overlooked was that Roberts had been one of the most clamorous among those screaming for an open declaration of war. He had doffed his robes, taken to the platform in his frantic apprehensions and demanded that we immediately unite with Great Britain in a single nation. The Pearl Harbor incident had given him what he had been yelling for – America's entrance into the war. On the war issue he was one of the President's most impressive allies. Now he had his wish. He could be depended on not to cast any stain upon it in its infancy.
Perhaps influenced by his work on the Pearl Harbor commission, Roberts dissented from the Court's decision upholding internment of Japanese-Americans along theWest Coast in 1944'sKorematsu v. United States.
The secondRoberts Commission was established in 1943 to consolidate earlier efforts on a national basis with the US Army to help protect monuments, fine arts, and archives in war zones.[13] The commission ran until 1946, when its activities were consolidated into theState Department
Roberts also played a key role in the creation of the OSSArt Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) which investigated and documented Nazi plunder networks in Europe.[14]
In his later years on the bench, Roberts was the only Justice on the Supreme Court who was not appointed (or, in the case of Stone, who had become Chief Justice, promoted) by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt. Roberts became frustrated with the willingness of the new justices to overturn precedent and with what he saw as their result-oriented liberalism as judges. Roberts dissented bitterly in the 1944 case ofSmith v. Allwright, which found the white primary unconstitutional and overruledan opinion that had been written by Roberts himself a mere nine years earlier. He coined in that dissent the oft-quoted phrase that the frequent overruling of decisions "tends to bring adjudications of this tribunal into the same class as a restricted railroad ticket, good for this day and train only".
Roberts retired from the Court the following year, in 1945; Roberts's relations with his colleagues had become so strained that fellow JusticeHugo Black refused to sign the customary letter acknowledging Roberts's service on his retirement. Other justices refused to sign a modified letter that would have been acceptable to Black, and in the end, no letter was ever sent.
Shortly after leaving the Court, Roberts reportedly burned all of his legal and judicial papers. As a result, there is no significant collection of Roberts's manuscript papers, as there is for most other modern Justices. Roberts did prepare a short memorandum discussing his alleged change of stance around the time of the court-packing effort, which he left in the hands of JusticeFelix Frankfurter.[15]
In 1946, Roberts was the first layperson elected to serve as President of the House of Deputies for the General Convention of theEpiscopal Church (United States). He served for one convention.[16]
While in retirement Roberts, along withRobert P. Bass, convened theDublin Declaration, a plan to change theU.N. General Assembly into a world legislature with "limited but definite and adequate power for the prevention of war".[17]
Roberts served as the Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1948 to 1951.
He died at hisChester County,Pennsylvania, farm known as theStrickland-Roberts Homestead after a four-month illness.[18] He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth Caldwell Rogers, and daughter, Elizabeth Hamilton.
Germantown Academy named its debate society after Owen J. Roberts in his honor. In addition, a school district nearPottstown, Pennsylvania, theOwen J. Roberts School District, was named after him.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1930–1945 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Dean of theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School 1948–1951 | Succeeded by Paul Brunton Acting |
