Brandeis, Louis D. (1856–1941)

LOUIS DEMBITZ Brandeis was a renowned litigator, social justice advocate, and widely celebrated U.S. Supreme Court justice. Throughout his career Brandeis sought to reconcile modern forms of government and social institutions and the growing inequalities fostered in large part by the Industrial Revolution with maintaining and protecting individual rights and liberties.

The son of Jewish parents who emigrated from Prague, Brandeis was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Graduating from high school with high honors at the age of 14, Brandeis immediately went on to attend Dresden University in Germany for two years prior to entering Harvard University. In 1877, Brandeis graduated from Harvard Law School at the head of his class. In 1891, Brandeis married Alice Goldmark, with whom he had two daughters.

Brandeis quickly established himself as a prominent attorney in Boston, where he used his knowledge and commitment to social justice to represent the public interest [Page 87]in numerous controversial cases. Brandeis's extraordinary success, coupled with his investments allowed him to achieve financial independence at a young age. This enabled him to take on pro bono cases fighting for the progressive causes he supported and led to him becoming known by many as the “the people's lawyer.” Demonstrating sympathy for both the trade unions and the women's rights movement, Brandeis also advocated establishing minimum wage and maximum hour regulations.

As a Supreme Court justice, Louis D. Brandeis tried to use the law to protect the powerless from the powerful.

In 1908, Brandeis, acting as a litigator in the case of Muller v. Oregon before the United States Supreme Court, composed what became known as the “Brandeis Brief.” Brandeis collected empirical data from hundreds of sources, compiling an extensive presentation with detailed accounts of the impact of long working hours on women. Notable as one of the first instances that social science was used in informing law in the United States, the brief influenced the direction of the Supreme Court and has since become the model for presentations to the Supreme Court.

Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Brandeis was associated with the progressive wing of the United States Democratic Party and was an active Zionist leader. He served as head of the Provisional Executive Committee for Zionist Affairs from 1914 through 1921 and again from 1930 until his death.

Additionally, Brandeis published two influential books: Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It (1914) and Business: A Profession (1914). Each expressed Brandeis's support of competition rather than monopoly in business and reflected his staunch advocacy for trade unions and workers' rights.

Brandeis, as an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson on policy matters, was highly influential in Wil-son's New Freedom economic doctrine. In 1916 he was appointed by Wilson to the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first Jew to serve on the Supreme Court. Despite significant opposition to his appointment, primarily from business interests and anti-Semites, Brandeis became one of the most influential justices in the history of the United States.

While on the bench, Brandeis authored opinions that envisioned greater protections for individual rights, specifically the rights of privacy and freedom of speech. Brandeis was persistent in his efforts to rid government of corruption and to ensure democracy by using the law to protect the powerless from the powerful. His interpretation of the United States Constitution was progressive, antimonopoly, anti-big business, in favor of flexible government economic regulation, and pro-state government.

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