Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law - Namesake

Namesake

Founded in 1976, the Law School is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo, who was born in 1870 in New York City, was renowned for his integrity, social consciousness, and important opinions. Cardozo rose to prominence during 23 years of private practice, becoming known as a lawyer’s lawyer before appointment to the New York State Court of Appeals in 1914. His tenure was marked by a number of original rulings, in tort and contract law in particular. This is partly due to timing; rapid industrialization was forcing courts to look anew at old common law components to adapt to new settings. He became the nation’s best known and most admired state court judge. He added to his reputation through highly acclaimed off-the-bench writings, of which the most important is The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921). Shortly thereafter, Cardozo became a member of the group that founded the American Law Institute, which crafted a Restatement of the Law of Torts, Contracts, and a host of other private law subjects. He wrote three other books that also became standards in the legal world. By asking, and answering, the monumentally simple question, “What is it that I do when I decide a case?”, he helped many see the judicial role with greater clarity. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover appointed Cardozo to succeed Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. on the Supreme Court. In his six years as an Associate Justice, he handed down opinions that stressed the necessity for the law to adapt to the realities and needs of modern life. The New York Times said of Cardozo's appointment that "seldom, if ever, in the history of the Court has an appointment been so universally commended." Democratic Cardozo's appointment by a Republican president has been referred to as one of the few Supreme Court appointments in history not motivated by partisanship or politics, but strictly based on the nominee's contribution to law.