Louis D. Brandeis (1846-1941)
As a successful lawyer and supporter of reform movements of the period, Louis Brandeis argued important public interest and labor reform cases and later became one of the most celebrated Justices in the history of the Supreme Court.
Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1856. His parents, Adolph and Frederika, emigrated from Germany during the European Revolutions of 1848. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he remained in Boston and developed a successful legal practice. In 1907, Brandeis's sister-in-law Josephine Goldmark, along with Florence Kelley, head of the National Consumers League, asked Brandeis to defend Oregon's maximum hour law for women in Mueller v. Oregon, which was to be appealed before the Supreme Court. Brandeis agreed to take the case and produced what is now called the "Brandeis brief," a statement of the law's constitutionality followed by over 100 pages of research data supporting the legislature's conclusion. In early 1908, the Court unanimously upheld the Oregon law's constitutionality.
In 1916, Brandeis was nominated and appointed to the Supreme Court by President Woodrow Wilson. He served on the Court for nearly twenty-three years, retiring in early 1939.
OCP Resources
United States. Supreme Court. Women in industry: decision of the United States Supreme Court in Curt Muller vs. State of Oregon: upholding the constitutionality of the Oregon ten hour law for women and brief for the State of Oregon, by Louis D. Brandeis, assisted by Josephine Goldmark. New York: n.p., [1908].
Brandeis, Louis Dembitz. W.C. Ritchie and Company, et als., appellees, vs. John E. W. Wayman and Edgar T. Davies, appellants, appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, Hon. Richard S. Tuthill, judge presiding: brief and argument for appellants. [Chicago?: s.n., 1909].
Wilson, F.P. F. A. Miller, plaintiff-in-error, vs. F.P. Wilson, sherrif, William B. Bosley et al., appellants, vs. John P. McLauglin,, labor commissioner of the State of California,...brief for defendant Wilson and appellees by Louis D. Brandeis, assisted by Josephine Goldmark. New York: C.P. Young, printers, [1914?].
Oregon. The Case for the shorter work day. New York: Reprinted by National Consumers' League, 1916. 2v.
Brandeis, Louis Dembitz. The People of the State of New York, respondent, against Charles Schweinler Press, a corporation, defendant-appellant. New York: National Consumers' League, [1918?].
Web Resources
The Papers of Louis Brandeis: University of Louisville School of Law, Harvard Law School
Brandeis University Library, Special Collection, "The People's Attorney": The Life of Louis D. Brandeis, 1856-1941.