Jackson, Robert H.

Robert H. Jackson, in full Robert Houghwout Jackson, (born February 13, 1892, Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died October 9, 1954, Washington, D.C.), associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1941–54).

An adept scholar, Jackson pleaded his first case by special permission while still a minor and was admitted to the bar at the age of 21. He served as corporation counsel for Jamestown, New York, and, after the stock market crash of 1929, helped merge the city’s three financial institutions, subsequently becoming a director of the consolidated entity. He was also an active supporter of New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who appointed him to a commission to study the state’s judicial system. After Roosevelt’s election to the presidency, Jackson was made general counsel to the Internal Revenue Bureau, where his notable accomplishment was the successful prosecution of financier Andrew Mellon for income-tax evasion. Jackson also served as special counsel to the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission and as assistant attorney general of the Tax, and then the Anti-Trust, Division. President Roosevelt appointed him U.S. solicitor general in 1938 and attorney general in 1940. In all these assignments he was the chief legal exponent of New Deal legislation. As attorney general, he drafted at Roosevelt’s request an opinion defending the transfer to Great Britain of 50 over-age destroyers in exchange for U.S. acquisition of several British military bases.

In 1941 Roosevelt named Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. His early opinions reflect his liberal and nationalistic views. In Edwards v. California (1941), which declared unconstitutional California’s “Okie” law barring indigent migrants from entering the state, Jackson held that freedom of movement within the United States was guaranteed by citizenship. He also strongly defended the separation of church and state. His defense of First Amendment guarantees were, however, balanced by concern for maintaining public order and security, which led to his concurring with court findings against the Communist Party and in favour of the relocation of Japanese persons during World War II. He is also remembered as a vigorous and clear legal stylist.

Jackson took a leave from the bench to serve as chief U.S. prosecutor in the Nürnberg trials of former German leaders. He was largely responsible for the legal basis of the International Military Tribunal as embodied in its charter and built for the prosecution a massive case from captured Nazi documents; but, having no experience as a prosecuting attorney, he conducted an undistinguished cross-examination of Hermann Göring and other defendants. In 1946 he returned to the bench.