Hugo Black - Appointment To The Supreme Court

Appointment To The Supreme Court

Soon after the failure of the court-packing plan, President Roosevelt obtained his first opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court Justice when conservative Willis Van Devanter retired. Roosevelt wanted the replacement to be a "thumping, evangelical New Dealer" who was reasonably young, confirmable by the Senate, and from a region of the country unrepresented on the Court. The three final candidates were Solicitor General Stanley Reed, Sherman Minton, and Hugo Black. Roosevelt said Reed "had no fire," and Minton did not want the appointment at the time. The position would go to Black, a candidate from the South, who, as a senator, had voted for all 24 of Roosevelt's major New Deal programs. Roosevelt admired Black's use of the investigative role of the Senate to shape the American mind on reforms, his strong voting record, and his early support, which dated back to 1933.

On August 12, 1937, Roosevelt nominated Black to fill the vacancy. By tradition, a senator nominated for an executive or judicial office was confirmed immediately and without debate. However, when Black was nominated, the Senate departed from this tradition for the first time since 1853; instead of confirming him immediately, it referred the nomination to the Judiciary Committee. Black was criticized for his presumed bigotry, his cultural roots, and his Klan membership, when that became public.

The Judiciary Committee recommended Black's confirmation by a vote of 13–4 on August 16 of that year.

The next day the full Senate considered Black's nomination. Rumors relating to Black's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan surfaced among the senators, and two Democratic senators tried defeating the nomination. However, no conclusive evidence of Black's involvement was available at the time, so after six hours of debate, the Senate voted 63-16 to confirm Black, ten Republicans and six Democrats voted against Black. Alabama Governor Bibb Graves appointed his own wife, Dixie B. Graves, to fill Black's vacated seat.

The next month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigated Black's past. Ray Sprigle won a Pulitzer Prize for his series of articles revealing Black's involvement in the Klan. However, the controversy soon subsided; the criticism was highly partisan, and polls showed that the attacks had little effect on public opinion of Black. Black also addressed public concerns in person: "I did join the Klan. I later resigned. I never rejoined.... Before becoming a Senator I dropped the Klan. I have had nothing to do with it since that time. I abandoned it. I completely discontinued any association with the organization. I have never resumed it and never expect to do so."

Black was close friends with Walter Francis White, the black executive secretary of the NAACP who would help assuage critics of the appointment. Black also had a Jewish law clerk and a Catholic secretary. Chambers v. Florida (1940), an early case where Black ruled in favor of African American criminal defendants who experienced due process violations, helped put concerns to rest.