Frank Murphy | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1940s | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office February 5, 1940[1] – July 19, 1949[1] | |
| Nominated by | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Pierce Butler |
| Succeeded by | Tom C. Clark |
| 56thUnited States Attorney General | |
| In office January 2, 1939 – January 18, 1940 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Homer Stille Cummings |
| Succeeded by | Robert H. Jackson |
| 35thGovernor of Michigan | |
| In office January 1, 1937 – January 1, 1939 | |
| Lieutenant | Leo J. Nowicki |
| Preceded by | Frank Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by | Frank Fitzgerald |
| 1stHigh Commissioner to the Philippines | |
| In office November 15, 1935 – December 31, 1936 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | J. Weldon Jones (Acting) |
| Governor General of the Philippine Islands | |
| In office July 15, 1933 – November 15, 1935 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Theodore Roosevelt Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Manuel L. Quezon (President) |
| 55thMayor of Detroit | |
| In office September 23, 1930 – May 10, 1933 | |
| Preceded by | Charles Bowles |
| Succeeded by | Frank Couzens |
| 1stPresident of the United States Conference of Mayors | |
| In office 1932–1933 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | James Michael Curley |
| Associate Judge of theDetroit Recorder’s Court | |
| In office January 1, 1924 – August 19, 1930[2][3] | |
| Preceded by | seat established[4][5] |
| Succeeded by | John P. Scallen[6] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Francis Murphy (1890-04-13)April 13, 1890 Harbor Beach, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | July 19, 1949(1949-07-19) (aged 59) Detroit,Michigan, U.S. |
| Resting place | Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery, Harbor Beach,Huron County, Michigan |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | University of Michigan (BA,LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army (1917–1919) United States Army Reserve (1942) |
| Rank |  Lieutenant Colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890 – July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, andjurist fromMichigan. He was aDemocrat who was named to theSupreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving asUnited States Attorney General, 35thgovernor of Michigan, andMayor of Detroit. He also served as the lastGovernor-General of the Philippines and the firstHigh Commissioner to the Philippines.
Born in "The Thumb" region of Michigan, Murphy graduated from theUniversity of Michigan Law School in 1914. After serving in theUnited States Army duringWorld War I, he served as a federal attorney and trial judge. He served as Mayor of Detroit from 1930 to 1933. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him among the ten best mayors in American history.[7] In 1933 he was appointed as Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. He returned home in 1936 and defeated incumbentRepublican governorFrank Fitzgerald in the1936 Michigan gubernatorial election and served a single term as Governor of Michigan. Murphy lost re-election to Fitzgerald in 1938 and accepted an appointment as the United States Attorney General the following year.
In 1940, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt appointed Murphy to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the death ofPierce Butler. Murphy served on the Court from 1940 until his death in 1949, and was succeeded byTom C. Clark. Murphy wrote the Court's majority opinion inSEC v. W. J. Howey Co., and wrote a dissenting opinion inKorematsu v. United States.
Murphy was born inHarbor Beach (then called Sand Beach),Michigan, in 1890.[8] Both his parents, John T. Murphy and Mary Brennan, wereIrish immigrants and raised him as a devoutCatholic.[9] He followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a lawyer. He attended theUniversity of Michigan Law School, and graduated with a BA in 1912 and anLLB in 1914. He was a member of theSigma Chi fraternity and the senior societyMichigamua.[10]
Murphy was admitted to theState Bar of Michigan in 1914, after which heclerked with a Detroit law firm for three years. He then served with theAmerican Expeditionary Forces in Europe duringWorld War I,[8] achieving the rank ofcaptain with the occupation army in Germany before leaving the service in 1919. He remained abroad afterward to pursue graduate studies.[8] He did his graduate work atLincoln's Inn in London andTrinity College, Dublin, which was said to be formative for his judicial philosophy. He developed a need to decide cases based on his more holistic notions of justice, eschewing technical legal arguments. As one commentator quipped of his later Supreme Court service, he "tempered justice with Murphy."[11]
Murphy was appointed and took the oath of office as the firstAssistant United States Attorney for theEastern District of Michigan on August 9, 1919.[12] He was one of three assistant attorneys in the office.
When Murphy began his career as a federal attorney, the workload of the attorney's office was increasing at a rapid rate, mainly because of the number of prosecutions resulting from the enforcement ofnational prohibition. The government's excellent record in winning convictions in the Eastern District was partially due to Murphy's record of winning all but one of the cases he prosecuted. He practiced law privately to a limited extent while still a federal attorney, and resigned his position as aUnited States attorney on March 1, 1922.[13] He had several offers to join private practices, but decided to go it alone and formed a partnership with Edward G. Kemp inDetroit.[14]
Murphy ran unsuccessfully as aDemocrat for theUnited States Congress in 1920, when national and stateRepublicans swept Michigan, but used his legal reputation and growing political connections to win a seat on theRecorder's Court, Detroit's criminal court.[15] In 1923, he was elected judge of the Recorder's Court on a non-partisan ticket by one of the largest majorities ever cast for a judge in Detroit, took office on January 1, 1924, and served seven years during theProhibition era.
While on Recorder's Court, he established a reputation as a trial judge. He was a presiding judge in the famous murder trials of Dr.Ossian Sweet and his brother, Henry Sweet, in 1925 and 1926.Clarence Darrow, then one of the most prominent triallawyers in the country, was lead counsel for the defense.[16] After an initialmistrial of all of theblack defendants, Henry Sweet—who admitted that he fired the weapon which killed a member of the mob surrounding Dr. Sweet's home and was retried separately—wasacquitted by an all-white jury on grounds of theright of self-defense.[17] The prosecution then elected tonot prosecute any of the remaining defendants. Murphy's rulings were material to the outcome of the case.[18]
In 1930, Murphy ran as aDemocrat and was electedMayor of Detroit. He served from 1930 to 1933, during the first years of theGreat Depression. He presided over an epidemic of urban unemployment, a crisis in which 100,000 were unemployed in the summer of 1931. He named an unemployment committee of private citizens from businesses, churches, and labor and social service organizations to identify all residents who were unemployed and not receivingwelfare benefits. The Mayor's Unemployment Committee raised funds for its relief effort and worked to distribute food and clothing to the needy, and a Legal Aid Subcommittee volunteered to assist with the legal problems of needy clients. In 1933, Murphy convened in Detroit and organized the first convention of theUnited States Conference of Mayors. They met and conferred withPresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, and Murphy was elected its first president.[19] He served in that position from 1932 until 1933.[20]
Murphy was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Roosevelt and theNew Deal, helping Roosevelt to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state of Michigan sinceFranklin Piercein 1852 before the Republican Party was founded.
A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists, and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago saw Murphy ranked as the seventh-best American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.[21] Holli wrote that Murphy was an exemplary mayor and a highly effective leader.[22]
By 1933, after Murphy's second mayoral term, the reward of a big government job was waiting. Roosevelt appointed Murphy asGovernor-General of thePhilippine Islands.
He was sympathetic to the plight of ordinary Filipinos, especially the land-hungry and oppressedtenant farmers, and emphasized the need for social justice.[23]
When his position as governor-general was abolished in 1935, he stayed on asUnited States High Commissioner until 1936. That year, he was a delegate from the Philippine Islands to theDemocratic National Convention.
High Commissioner to the Philippines was the title of the personal representative of the president of the United States to theCommonwealth of the Philippines during the period 1935–1946. The office was created by theTydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, which provided for a period of transition from direct American rule to the complete independence of the islands on July 4, 1946.[citation needed]
Murphy was elected the 35thgovernor of Michigan on November 3, 1936, defeatingRepublican incumbentFrank Fitzgerald, and served one two-year term. During his two years in office, anunemployment compensation system was instituted and mental health programs were improved.
TheUnited Automobile Workers engaged in an historicsit-down strike atGeneral Motors'Flint plant. TheFlint Sit-Down Strike was a turning point in nationalcollective bargaining and labor policy. After 27 people were injured in a battle between the workers and the police, including 13 strikers with gunshot wounds, Murphy sent theNational Guard to protect the workers, failed to follow a court order that requested him to expel the strikers, and refused to order the Guard's troops to suppress the strike.[24][25][26]
He successfully mediated an agreement and end to the confrontation, and G.M. recognized theU.A.W. as a bargaining agent under the newly adoptedNational Labor Relations Act. This recognition had a significant effect on the growth of organized labor unions.[27] In the next year, the UAW saw its membership grow from 30,000 to 500,000 members. As later noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), this strike was "the strike heard round the world."[28]
In 1938, Murphy was defeated by his predecessor, Fitzgerald, who became the only governor of Michigan to precede, and then succeed, the same person.
In 1939, Roosevelt appointed Murphy the 56thattorney general of the United States. He established a Civil Liberties Unit in theCriminal Division of theUnited States Department of Justice, designed to centralize enforcement responsibility for theBill of Rights and civil rights statutes.[29]
One year after becoming attorney general, on January 4, 1940, Murphy was nominated by President Roosevelt asAssociate Justice of theSupreme Court, filling the vacancy caused by the death ofPierce Butler the previous November. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 16,[30] and sworn in on February 5, 1940.[1] The timing of the appointment put Murphy on the cusp of theCharles Evans Hughes[31] and theHarlan Fiske Stone courts.[32] On the death ofChief Justice Stone, Murphy served in the court led byFrederick Moore Vinson, who was confirmed in 1946.[33] DuringWorld War II he served in theArmy Reserve during three months of 1942 while the court was in recess.[34][35] He served as the executive officer to theChief of Staff of the United States ArmyGeorge C. Marshall.[36][37] He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.[35][34]
Murphy took an expansive view of individual liberties, and the limitations on government he found in theBill of Rights.[38] He authored 199 opinions: 131 for the majority, 68 in dissent.[39] One of the important opinions authored by Justice Murphy wasSecurities and Exchange Commission v. W. J. Howey Co. (1946), in which the Court defined the term "investment contract" under theSecurities Act of 1933, thus giving content to the most important concept of what makes something a security in American law.
Opinions differ about him and hisjurisprudential philosophy. He has been acclaimed as a legal scholar and a champion of the common man,[39] but JusticeFelix Frankfurter disparagingly nicknamed Murphy "the Saint", criticizing his decisions as being rooted more in passion than reason. It has been said he was "neither legal scholar nor craftsman", and he was criticized "for relying on heart over head, results over legal reasoning, clerks over hard work, and emotional solos over team play."[40]
Murphy's support of African Americans, aliens, criminals, dissenters,Jehovah's Witnesses,Native Americans, women, workers and other "outsiders" evoked a pun: "tempering justice with Murphy." As he wrote inFalbo v. United States (1944), "The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution." (p. 561)
According to Frankfurter, Murphy was part of the more liberal "axis" of justices on the Court along with justicesWiley B. Rutledge,William O. Douglas, andHugo L. Black; the group would for years oppose Frankfurter's "judicially restrained" conservative ideology.[41] Douglas, Murphy and then Rutledge were the first justices to agree with Black's notion that theFourteenth Amendment incorporated the Bill of Rights' protection in it; this view would later become law.[42]
Murphy is perhaps best known for his vehement dissent from the court's ruling inKorematsu v. United States (1944), which upheld the constitutionality of the government'sinternment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. He sharply criticized the majority ruling as "legalization of racism."
This was the first time the word "racism" found its way into a Supreme Court opinion (Murphy had previously used the term twice in a concurring opinion inSteele v. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co. (1944)[43] issued that same day). He would use that word again in five separate opinions before the word "racism" disappeared from Murphy's and the High Court's other opinions for almost two decades, not reappearing until the landmark decision ofLoving v. Virginia (1967),[44][45] which struck down as unconstitutional the Virginiaanti-miscegenation statute. (See alsoJim Crow laws.)
Although Murphy was serving on the Supreme Court during World War II, he still longed to be part of the war effort and so he served atFort Benning, Georgia as an infantry officer during court recesses.[46]
On January 30, 1944, almost exactly one year beforeSoviet liberation of theAuschwitz death camp on January 27, 1945, Justice Murphy unveiled the formation of the National Committee Against Nazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews. Serving as committee chair, he declared that it was created to combatNazi propaganda "breeding the germs of hatred against Jews." This announcement was made on the 11th anniversary ofAdolf Hitler's appointment asChancellor of Germany. The eleven committee members included U.S. Vice PresidentHenry Wallace, 1940Republican presidential candidateWendell Willkie andHenry St. George Tucker,Presiding Bishop of the ProtestantEpiscopal Church.[47]
Murphy was among 12 nominated at the1944 Democratic National Convention to serve as Roosevelt's running mate in thepresidential election that year.[48] He acted as chairman of the National Committee againstNazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews and of the Philippine War Relief Committee.[49] The first committee was established in early 1944 to promote rescue of European Jews, and to combatantisemitism in the United States.[50]
Murphy died in his sleep atHenry Ford Hospital in Detroit on July 19, 1949, of acoronary thrombosis at the age of 59.[51] Over 10,000 people attended his funeral in Detroit. He is buried in Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery inSand Beach Township, Michigan, near Harbor Beach.[52]
TheFrank Murphy Hall of Justice was home to Detroit'sRecorder's Court and now houses part of Michigan's Third JudicialCircuit Court.[53] There is a plaque in his honor on the first floor, which is recognized as a Michigan Legal Milestone.[54]
Outside the Hall of Justice isCarl Milles's statue "The Hand of God".[55] This rendition was cast in honor of Murphy and financed by theUnited Automobile Workers. It features a nude figure emerging from the left hand of God. Although commissioned in 1949 and completed by 1953, the work, partly because of the male nudity involved,[56] was kept in storage for a decade and a half.[57] The work was chosen in tribute to Murphy byWalter P. Reuther andIra W. Jayne.[58] It was placed on a pedestal in 1970 with the help of sculptorMarshall Fredericks, who was a Milles student.
Murphy is also honored with a museum in his home town, Harbor Beach, Michigan. Housed at his former residence, it contains numerous personal artifacts from his life and career, most notably from the Philippines. The Murphy Museum is open during the summer months, by appointment.
Murphy's personal and official files are archived at theBentley Historical Library of theUniversity of Michigan inAnn Arbor and are open for research. This also includes an oral history project about Murphy.[59] His correspondence and other official documents are deposited in libraries around the country.[60]
In memory of Murphy, one of threeUniversity of Michigan Law Schoolalumni to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Washington, D.C.–based attorneyJohn H. Pickering, who was alaw clerk for Murphy, donated a large sum of money to the law school as a remembrance, establishing the Frank Murphy Seminar Room.[10]
Murphy was awarded an HonoraryDoctorate of Law degree by the University of Michigan in 1939.[14]
The University of Detroit has a Frank Murphy Honor Society.[61]
The Sweet Trials: Malice Aforethought is a play written by Arthur Beer, based on the trials of Ossian and Henry Sweet, and derived fromKevin Boyle'sArc of Justice.[62]
TheDetroit Public Schools named Frank Murphy Elementary in his honor.[63]
Murphy never married or had children. He was the subject of "[r]umors of homosexuality [...] all his adult life".[64] According toCourting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court:
[a] gay reading of [biographies of Murphy] suggests that Murphy's homosexuality was hiding in plain sight. For more than 40 years, Edward G. Kemp was Frank Murphy's devoted, trusted companion. Like Murphy, Kemp was a lifelong bachelor. From college until Murphy's death, the pair found creative ways to work and live together. [...] When Murphy appeared to have the better future in politics, Kemp stepped into a supportive, secondary role, much as Hillary Clinton would later do for Bill Clinton.[65]
As well as Murphy's close relationship with Kemp, Murphy's biographer, historianSidney Fine, found in Murphy's personal papers a letter that "if the words mean what they say, refers to a homosexual encounter some years earlier between Murphy and the writer."[66] The writer of the letter implied that he and Murphy had become lovers while Murphy was governor-general and congratulated Murphy on his appointment to the Supreme Court.[65]
Murphy did have at least two female companions of note. Ann Parker was frequently seen horseback riding with Murphy in Washington during his tenure as U.S. Attorney General, leading to speculation of a romance in the press. At the time of his death, Murphy was engaged to Joan Cuddihy; the wedding was scheduled for the following month.[67]
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mayor of Detroit 1930–1933 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor-General of the Philippines 1933–1935 | Succeeded byasPresident of the Philippines |
| Preceded by | Governor of Michigan 1937–1939 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| New office | High Commissioner to the Philippines 1935–1936 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Michigan 1936,1938 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | United States Attorney General 1939–1940 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1940–1949 | Succeeded by |
Americangovernors-general of thePhilippines | ||
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