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Full Faith and Credit

A namesake lecture in memory of Mr. Justice Cardozo is an undertaking of more than ordinary challenge to a Justice of a succeeding generation. Even choice of a fitting subject has difficulties. One related to the work of the Court on which he and I both have served might seem appropriate. But Judge Cardozo's most significant contributions to the law are not to be found in the reports of the Supreme Court. He was preeminently a devotee of the common law, while the Supreme Court has never been distinguished as a source of common law and during his time renounced independence of judgment as to what the common law is or should be in the class of cases that most often invoked it.

The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy: A Study of a Crisis in American Power Politics

In January 1941, Jackson, as Attorney General of the United States, published a best seller, The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy: A Study of a Crisis in American Power Politics (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.). In the book, Jackson reviewed the history of the Supreme Court of the United States, the increase in its power through adjudications of the constitutionality of federal and state laws and, in response, President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 effort to resist judicial expansionism through “Court-packing” legislation. (The link shows the dust jacket. A copy of the full text is not available on our website.)

The Case Against the Nazi War Criminals

From the book jacket: This volume contains several of the most significant documents of our era. They are: Justice Robert H. Jackson's opening statement for the United States a the trial of the Nazi war criminals at Nurnberg; the complete text of the indictment of the Nazi criminals; and the text of the four-power agreement upon which the trials are based. These documents are introduced by an explanatory analysis by Gordon Dean of United States counsel.

The Nürnberg Case: as presented by Robert H. Jackson

From the book jacket: Here are the high points of the unique war-criminals trials, from Jackson's preliminary Report to President Truman of June 7, 1945, in complete form, to the closing section of he final Report to the President of October 7, 1946. The Opening Statement and the Closing Speech for the United States are printed in their entirety, as is the speech delivered by Jackson expounding the theory of legality involved in accusing Nazi organizations of being criminal. In 1947, Jackson published The Nürnberg Case (Knopf), which includes his first report to President Truman (June 1945), the London Agreement, Jackson’s opening statement, his legal argument on the criminal charges against indicted Nazi organizations (February 1946), Jackson’s closing address at the trial (July 1946) and excerpts from four of his cross-examinations (of defendants Hermann Goering, Hjalmar Schacht and Albert Speer and defense witness Erhard Milch) during the trial.

The Supreme Court in the American System of Government

In March 1954 the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration invited Mr. Justice Jackson to become the Godkin Lecturer for the academic year 1954-1955. The Justice accepted and chose as his topic for the three lectures, “The Supreme Court in the American System of Government.” February of 1955 was tentatively set as the date for delivery. The Justice began outlining his subject and formulating his ideas soon after he accepted the invitation, and by the end of summer, 1954, he had completed six drafts of the first lecture and two of the second and third. He then reorganized the whole and wrote one more draft of the first two lectures and two partial redrafts of the third. Mr. Justice Jackson died suddenly on October 9, 1954.

That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt

Justice Jackson also had been writing, in his final years, a memoir of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This manuscript, discovered fifty years later, was published in 2003 as That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Oxford University Press).

Mr. Justice Jackson

Charles S. Desmond, Paul A. Freund, Justice Potter Stewart & Lord Shawcross, Mr. Justice Jackson: Four Lectures in His Honor (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1969) (with introductions by Whitney North Seymour, John Lord O’Brian, Judge Charles D. Breitel and Justice John M. Harlan).