Changing Places (review of The Antagonists, by James F. Simon)

Felix Frankfurter was born to serve on the Supreme Court. When President Roosevelt nominated the Harvard law professor in 1939, progressives and civil libertarians uncorked the champagne. This, it was widely agreed, was Roosevelt’s first great Court appointment—certainly better than his appointment two years earlier of the populist Southern senator Hugo Black, or of the forgettable Stanley Reed.

The Antagonists: Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, and Civil Liberties in Modern America, by James F. Simon (Simon & Schuster, 312 pp., $19.95)

JA

About the Author

James H. Andrews

Felix Frankfurter was born to serve on the Supreme Court. When President Roosevelt nominated the Harvard law professor in 1939, progressives and civil libertarians uncorked the champagne. This, it was widely agreed, was Roosevelt’s first great Court appointment—certainly better than his appointment two years earlier of the populist Southern senator Hugo Black, or of the forgettable Stanley Reed.

The Antagonists: Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, and Civil Liberties in Modern America, by James F. Simon (Simon & Schuster, 312 pp., $19.95)