Frank Murphy#Personal life

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Frank Murphy

| image = Justice Frank Murphy.jpg

| office = Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

| term_start = February 5, 1940{{Cite web| title=Justices 1789 to Present| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=September 20, 2019| archive-date=April 15, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415034624/https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| url-status=live}}

| term_end = July 19, 1949

| predecessor = Pierce Butler

| successor = Tom C. Clark

| office1 = 56th United States Attorney General

| president1 = Franklin D. Roosevelt

| term_start1 = January 2, 1939

| term_end1 = January 18, 1940

| predecessor1 = Homer Stille Cummings

| successor1 = Robert H. Jackson

| order2 = 35th Governor of Michigan

| lieutenant2 = Leo J. Nowicki

| term_start2 = January 1, 1937

| term_end2 = January 1, 1939

| predecessor2 = Frank Fitzgerald

| successor2 = Frank Fitzgerald

| office3 = 1st High Commissioner to the Philippines

| president3 = Franklin D. Roosevelt

| term_start3 = November 15, 1935

| term_end3 = December 31, 1936

| predecessor3 = Position established

| successor3 = J. Weldon Jones (Acting)

| office4 = Governor General of the Philippine Islands

| president4 = Franklin D. Roosevelt

| term_start4 = July 15, 1933

| term_end4 = November 15, 1935

| predecessor4 = Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

| successor4 = Manuel L. Quezon (President)

| office5 = 55th Mayor of Detroit

| term_start5 = September 23, 1930

| term_end5 = May 10, 1933

| predecessor5 = Charles Bowles

| successor5 = Frank Couzens

| office6 = 1st President of the United States Conference of Mayors

| term_start6 = 1932

| term_end6 = 1933

| predecessor6 = Position established

| successor6 = James Michael Curley

| office7 = Associate Judge of the Detroit Recorder’s Court

| term_start7 = January 1, 1924

| term_end7 = August 19, 1930{{cite book |last=Fine |first=Sidney |author-link= |date=October 21, 1969 |title=Sit-Down: The General Motors Strike of 1936-1937 |url= |location= |publisher=University of Michigan Press |page= |isbn=9780472329489}}{{cite book |last=Vander Hill, Warner |first=C. Warren, Robert Mark |author-link= |date=1974 |title=Michigan Reader: 1865 to the Present |url= |location= |publisher=Eerdmans |page= |isbn=9780802870308}}

| predecessor7 = seat established{{cite book |last=Morris-Crowther |first=Jayne |author-link= |date=March 15, 2013 |title=The Political Activities of Detroit Clubwomen in the 1920s |url= |location= |publisher=Wayne State University Press |page= |isbn=9780814338162}}[{{cite book |last=Boyle |first=Kevin |author-link= |date=April 2007 |title=Arc of Justice - A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age |url= |location= |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |page= |isbn=9781429900164}}

| successor7 = John P. Scallen[https://archive.org/details/TheAmericanCatholicWhosWhoVols/page/406/mode/2up?q=Scallen The American Catholic Who's Who: Volume 5; Volumes 7-9; Volumes 11-20 (1960–1961)]

| birth_name = William Francis Murphy

| birth_date = {{birth date|1890|4|13}}

| birth_place = {{nowrap|Harbor Beach, Michigan, U.S.}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|7|19|1890|4|13}}

| death_place = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

| resting_place = Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery, Harbor Beach, Huron County, Michigan

| party = Democratic

| education = {{nowrap|University of Michigan (BA, LLB)}}

| allegiance = {{flag|United States}}

| branch = {{army|United States|size=23px}} (1917–1919)
23px United States Army Reserve (1942)

| rank = 23px Lieutenant Colonel

| battles = World War I
World War II

| caption = Official portrait, 1940s

}}

William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890{{spaced ndash}}July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving as United States Attorney General, 35th governor of Michigan, and Mayor of Detroit. He also served as the last Governor-General of the Philippines and the first High Commissioner to the Philippines.

Born in "The Thumb" region of Michigan, Murphy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1914. After serving in the United States Army during World War I, he served as a federal attorney and trial judge. He served as Mayor of Detroit from 1930 to 1933. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him among the ten best mayors in American history.Melvin G. Holli, The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders (Pennsylvania State UP, 1999), p. 4–11. In 1933 he was appointed as Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. He returned home in 1936 and defeated incumbent Republican governor Frank Fitzgerald in the 1936 Michigan gubernatorial election and served a single term as Governor of Michigan. Murphy lost re-election to Fitzgerald in 1938 and accepted an appointment as the United States Attorney General the following year.

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Murphy to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Pierce Butler. Murphy served on the Court from 1940 until his death in 1949, and was succeeded by Tom C. Clark. Murphy wrote the Court's majority opinion in SEC v. W. J. Howey Co., and wrote a dissenting opinion in Korematsu v. United States.

Early life

Murphy was born in Harbor Beach (then called Sand Beach), Michigan, in 1890.{{Cite web| title=Frank W. Murphy, 1940-1949| publisher=Supreme Court Historical Society| location=Washington, D.C.| url=https://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_murphy.html| website=supremecourthistory.org| access-date=September 20, 2019| archive-date=September 21, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921064701/https://supremecourthistory.org/timeline_murphy.html| url-status=live}} Both his parents, John T. Murphy and Mary Brennan, were Irish immigrants and raised him as a devout Catholic.{{cite web |url=http://www.michbar.org/journal/article.cfm?articleID=42&volumeID=6 |title=Article: Michigan Lawyers in History-Justice Frank Murphy, Michigan's Leading Citizen |publisher=Michbar.org |date=January 1, 1937 |access-date=February 19, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202025212/http://www.michbar.org/journal/article.cfm?articleID=42&volumeID=6 |archive-date=February 2, 2009 |df=mdy-all }} He followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a lawyer. He attended the University of Michigan Law School, and graduated with a BA in 1912 and an LLB in 1914. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and the senior society Michigamua.{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/lqn/pasteditions/winter2005/Documents/murphy.pdf |title=University of Michigan Law Quadrangle Notes on Frank Murphy. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327184102/http://www.law.umich.edu/newsandinfo/lqn/pasteditions/winter2005/Documents/murphy.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }}

Murphy was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 1914, after which he clerked with a Detroit law firm for three years. He then served with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I, achieving the rank of captain with the occupation army in Germany before leaving the service in 1919. He remained abroad afterward to pursue graduate studies. He did his graduate work at Lincoln's Inn in London and Trinity College, Dublin, which was said to be formative for his judicial philosophy. He developed a need to decide cases based on his more holistic notions of justice, eschewing technical legal arguments. As one commentator quipped of his later Supreme Court service, he "tempered justice with Murphy."{{cite web|url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/murphy_frank.html|first=Linda|last=Rapp|title=Frank Murphy, 1890–1949|access-date=January 26, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418014204/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/murphy_frank.html|archive-date=April 18, 2008|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}

Career

=1919–1922: U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan=

Murphy was appointed and took the oath of office as the first Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan on August 9, 1919.Fine, Frank Murphy, The Detroit Years, p. 58. He was one of three assistant attorneys in the office.

When Murphy began his career as a federal attorney, the workload of the attorney's office was increasing at a rapid rate, mainly because of the number of prosecutions resulting from the enforcement of national prohibition. The government's excellent record in winning convictions in the Eastern District was partially due to Murphy's record of winning all but one of the cases he prosecuted. He practiced law privately to a limited extent while still a federal attorney, and resigned his position as a United States attorney on March 1, 1922.Fine, Frank Murphy, The Detroit Years, p. 73. He had several offers to join private practices, but decided to go it alone and formed a partnership with Edward G. Kemp in Detroit.{{cite book| first = Sidney| last = Fine| author-link = Sidney Fine (historian)| title = Frank Murphy, The Detroit Years| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ecbzqNewkcIC| year = 1984| publisher = University of Michigan Press| isbn = 978-0-472-32949-6| access-date = August 18, 2020| archive-date = December 17, 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201217215701/https://books.google.com/books?id=ecbzqNewkcIC| url-status = live}}

=1923–1930: Recorder's Court=

Murphy ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the United States Congress in 1920, when national and state Republicans swept Michigan, but used his legal reputation and growing political connections to win a seat on the Recorder's Court, Detroit's criminal court.{{cite book| last = Finkelman| first = Paul| author-link = Paul Finkelman| title = Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YoI14vYA8r0C| date = October 10, 2006| publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-0-415-94342-0| page = 2304| access-date = August 18, 2020| archive-date = May 15, 2013| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130515015804/http://books.google.com/books?id=YoI14vYA8r0C| url-status = live}} In 1923, he was elected judge of the Recorder's Court on a non-partisan ticket by one of the largest majorities ever cast for a judge in Detroit, took office on January 1, 1924, and served seven years during the Prohibition era.

While on Recorder's Court, he established a reputation as a trial judge. He was a presiding judge in the famous murder trials of Dr. Ossian Sweet and his brother, Henry Sweet, in 1925 and 1926. Clarence Darrow, then one of the most prominent trial lawyers in the country, was lead counsel for the defense.{{cite book| first = Kevin| last = Boyle| title = Arc of justice: a saga of race, civil rights, and murder in the Jazz Age| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BHqX_baY1CAC| year = 2004| publisher = Macmillan| isbn = 978-0-8050-7145-0| access-date = August 18, 2020| archive-date = December 17, 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201217222057/https://books.google.com/books?id=BHqX_baY1CAC| url-status = live}} After an initial mistrial of all of the black defendants, Henry Sweet—who admitted that he fired the weapon which killed a member of the mob surrounding Dr. Sweet's home and was retried separately—was acquitted by an all-white jury on grounds of the right of self-defense.{{cite web |url= http://www.anb.org/articles/13/13-02607.html |title= Ossian Haven Sweet |work= American National Biography |access-date= January 4, 2009 |archive-date= October 22, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161022032902/http://www.anb.org/articles/13/13-02607.html |url-status= live }} The prosecution then elected to not prosecute any of the remaining defendants. Murphy's rulings were material to the outcome of the case.{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sweet/chargetojury.html|title=Judge Frank Murphy's charge to the jury, People vs. Sweet|work=Famous American Trials|publisher=University of Missouri, Kansas City|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625001640/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/sweet/chargetojury.html|archive-date=June 25, 2010|df=mdy-all}}

=1930–1933: Mayor of Detroit=

In 1930, Murphy ran as a Democrat and was elected Mayor of Detroit. He served from 1930 to 1933, during the first years of the Great Depression. He presided over an epidemic of urban unemployment, a crisis in which 100,000 were unemployed in the summer of 1931. He named an unemployment committee of private citizens from businesses, churches, and labor and social service organizations to identify all residents who were unemployed and not receiving welfare benefits. The Mayor's Unemployment Committee raised funds for its relief effort and worked to distribute food and clothing to the needy, and a Legal Aid Subcommittee volunteered to assist with the legal problems of needy clients. In 1933, Murphy convened in Detroit and organized the first convention of the United States Conference of Mayors. They met and conferred with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Murphy was elected its first president.{{cite web | url=http://usmayors.org/?cx=005847641447462338878%3Av_h-uyitptk&cof=FORID%3A11&q=Frank+Murphy&sa=Search#1021 | title=The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) | access-date=April 3, 2009 | archive-date=July 27, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727215448/http://usmayors.org/?cx=005847641447462338878%3Av_h-uyitptk&cof=FORID%3A11&q=Frank+Murphy&sa=Search#1021 | url-status=live }} He served in that position from 1932 until 1933.{{cite web |url=https://www.usmayors.org/the-conference/leadership/ |title=Leadership |date=November 23, 2016 |access-date=July 24, 2020 |publisher=The United States Conference of Mayors}}

Murphy was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Roosevelt and the New Deal, helping Roosevelt to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state of Michigan since Franklin Pierce in 1852 before the Republican Party was founded.

A 1993 survey of historians, political scientists, and urban experts conducted by Melvin G. Holli of the University of Illinois at Chicago saw Murphy ranked as the seventh-best American big-city mayor to serve between the years 1820 and 1993.{{Cite book | last = Holli | first = Melvin G. | title = The American Mayor | publisher = PSU Press | year = 1999 | location = University Park | url = https://archive.org/details/americanmayorbes0000holl | isbn = 0-271-01876-3 }} Holli wrote that Murphy was an exemplary mayor and a highly effective leader.{{cite book| last = Holli| first = Melvin G.| title = The American Mayor: The Best & the Worst Big-City Leaders| url = http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=26785931291193| year = 1999| publisher = Pennsylvania State University Press| location = University Park, PA| access-date = February 3, 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070627110941/http://h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=26785931291193| archive-date = June 27, 2007| url-status = dead| df = mdy-all}}

=1933–1935: Governor-General of the Philippine Islands=

By 1933, after Murphy's second mayoral term, the reward of a big government job was waiting. Roosevelt appointed Murphy as Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.

He was sympathetic to the plight of ordinary Filipinos, especially the land-hungry and oppressed tenant farmers, and emphasized the need for social justice.{{cite encyclopedia| title=Frank Murphy| url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/frank-murphy#3404704655| encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography| access-date=September 20, 2019| via=encyclopedia.com| archive-date=September 21, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921064712/https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/frank-murphy#3404704655| url-status=live}}

=1935–1936: High Commissioner to the Philippines=

When his position as governor-general was abolished in 1935, he stayed on as United States High Commissioner until 1936. That year, he was a delegate from the Philippine Islands to the Democratic National Convention.

High Commissioner to the Philippines was the title of the personal representative of the president of the United States to the Commonwealth of the Philippines during the period 1935–1946. The office was created by the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, which provided for a period of transition from direct American rule to the complete independence of the islands on July 4, 1946.{{citation needed|date= February 2015}}

=1937–1939: Governor of Michigan=

File:Labor Secretary and Michigan Governor get together with GMC officials in efforts to settle auto strike.jpg Frances Perkins (seated center-left) meeting with General Motors officials on January 21, 1937, in an effort to end the month-old Flint sit-down strike; the two had met with UAW leaders earlier in the day.]]

Murphy was elected the 35th governor of Michigan on November 3, 1936, defeating Republican incumbent Frank Fitzgerald, and served one two-year term. During his two years in office, an unemployment compensation system was instituted and mental health programs were improved.

File:Frank Murphy 1939.png

The United Automobile Workers engaged in an historic sit-down strike at General Motors' Flint plant. The Flint Sit-Down Strike was a turning point in national collective bargaining and labor policy. After 27 people were injured in a battle between the workers and the police, including 13 strikers with gunshot wounds, Murphy sent the National Guard to protect the workers, failed to follow a court order that requested him to expel the strikers, and refused to order the Guard's troops to suppress the strike.{{cite news|location=Port Huron, MI |work= Times Herald |url=http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20090719/OPINION/907190311/-1/NEWSFRONT2/Connell--Murphy----a-judge--not-a-robot |title=Murphy: a judge – not a robot |first1=Mike |last1=Connell|date=July 19, 2009 |access-date=September 25, 2011}}Professor Neil Leighton, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan-Flint.{{cite web | url=http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=115&CFID=10878005&CFTOKEN=54778416 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716202346/http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=115&CFID=10878005&CFTOKEN=54778416 | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 16, 2012 | title=Detroit News on the Flint UAW/GM sit-down strike. | access-date=April 26, 2008 | df=mdy-all }}

He successfully mediated an agreement and end to the confrontation, and G.M. recognized the U.A.W. as a bargaining agent under the newly adopted National Labor Relations Act. This recognition had a significant effect on the growth of organized labor unions.{{cite web | url=http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=115&category=business | title=The Sit-Down Strike at General Motors | work=Detroit News | department=Rearview Mirror | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709044347/http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=115&category=business | archive-date=July 9, 2012 | df=mdy-all }} In the next year, the UAW saw its membership grow from 30,000 to 500,000 members. As later noted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), this strike was "the strike heard round the world."{{cite news |work= Detroit Free Press |title= Flint Sit-down strike end anniversary |date= February 10, 2008}}{{full citation needed|date= February 2015}}

In 1938, Murphy was defeated by his predecessor, Fitzgerald, who became the only governor of Michigan to precede, and then succeed, the same person.

=1939–1940: Attorney General of the United States=

In 1939, Roosevelt appointed Murphy the 56th attorney general of the United States. He established a Civil Liberties Unit in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, designed to centralize enforcement responsibility for the Bill of Rights and civil rights statutes.{{cite book| last = Tushnet| first = Mark V.| author-link = Mark V. Tushnet| title = Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1936–1961| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qi8XaPE_Ru8C| year = 1996| publisher = Oxford University Press| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-19-510468-4| access-date = August 18, 2020| archive-date = November 8, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211108181126/https://books.google.com/books?id=qi8XaPE_Ru8C| url-status = live}}

=1940–1949: Supreme Court and military service=

One year after becoming attorney general, on January 4, 1940, Murphy was nominated by President Roosevelt as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Pierce Butler the previous November. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 16,{{cite web| last1=McMillion| first1=Barry J.| last2=Rutkus| first2=Denis Steven| date=July 6, 2018| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2017: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| publisher=Congressional Research Service| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=September 20, 2019| archive-date=August 9, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809152918/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| url-status=live}} and sworn in on February 5, 1940. The timing of the appointment put Murphy on the cusp of the Charles Evans Hughes{{cite web|url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c11.html|title=Supreme Court Historical Society on Hughes Court |publisher= Supreme Court Historical Society |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090207190754/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c11.html|archive-date=February 7, 2009 |url-status=dead}} and the Harlan Fiske Stone courts.{{cite web|url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c12.html|title=Supreme Court Historical Society on Stone Court |publisher= Supreme Court Historical Society |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080724072647/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c12.html|archive-date=July 24, 2008 |url-status=dead}} On the death of Chief Justice Stone, Murphy served in the court led by Frederick Moore Vinson, who was confirmed in 1946.{{cite web|url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c13.html|title=Supreme Court Historical Society on Vinson Court |publisher= Supreme Court Historical Society |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081006174639/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c13.html|archive-date=October 6, 2008 |url-status=dead}} During World War II he served in the Army Reserve during three months of 1942 while the court was in recess.[https://books.google.com/books?id=nGUlEAAAQBAJ&dq=frank+Murphy+lieutenant+colonel+supreme+court&pg=PA1920 The Supreme Court Compendium - Two Centuries of Data, Decisions, and Developments][https://books.google.com/books?id=IiJYAAAAMAAJ&dq=frank+Murphy+lieutenant+colonel+supreme+court+1942&pg=RA17-PA7 The Michigan Alumnus, Volumes 89-90 (1982)] He served as the executive officer to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army George C. Marshall.[https://books.google.com/books?id=1j4eCwAAQBAJ&dq=George+Marshall+Frank+Murphy&pg=PT290 Bloodlines - Recovering Hitler's Nuremberg Laws from Patton's Trophy to Public Memorial][https://books.google.com/books?id=MsM3EAAAQBAJ&dq=George+Marshall+Frank+Murphy&pg=PA264 The Lost History of the Capitol - The Hidden and Tumultuous Saga of Congress and the Capitol Building] He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Murphy took an expansive view of individual liberties, and the limitations on government he found in the Bill of Rights.See generally, {{cite book |last= Norris |first= Harold |title= Mr. Justice Murphy and the Bill of Rights |location= Dobbs Ferry, NY |publisher= Oceana Publications |year= 1965 |postscript= ;}} includes some of Murphy's opinions, as well as a biography. He authored 199 opinions: 131 for the majority, 68 in dissent.{{cite journal |last= Maveal |first= Gary |url= http://www.michbar.org/journal/article.cfm?articleID=42&volumeID=6 |title= Michigan Lawyers in History: Justice Frank Murphy, Michigan's Leading Citizen |volume= 79 |journal= Michigan Bar Journal |page= 368 |date= March 2000 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090202025212/http://www.michbar.org/journal/article.cfm?articleID=42&volumeID=6 |archive-date= February 2, 2009 |df= mdy-all }} One of the important opinions authored by Justice Murphy was Securities and Exchange Commission v. W. J. Howey Co. (1946), in which the Court defined the term "investment contract" under the Securities Act of 1933, thus giving content to the most important concept of what makes something a security in American law.

Opinions differ about him and his jurisprudential philosophy. He has been acclaimed as a legal scholar and a champion of the common man, but Justice Felix Frankfurter disparagingly nicknamed Murphy "the Saint", criticizing his decisions as being rooted more in passion than reason. It has been said he was "neither legal scholar nor craftsman", and he was criticized "for relying on heart over head, results over legal reasoning, clerks over hard work, and emotional solos over team play."{{cite book | first= Howard J. Jr. |last= Woodford |url= http://www.answers.com/topic/frank-murphy |title= Mr. Justice Murphy: A Political Biography |location= Princeton, NJ |publisher= Princeton University Press |year= 1968 |access-date= February 28, 2009 |archive-date= March 7, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090307081832/http://www.answers.com/topic/frank-murphy |url-status= live }}

File:JusticeFrankMurphy.jpg

Murphy's support of African Americans, aliens, criminals, dissenters, Jehovah's Witnesses, Native Americans, women, workers and other "outsiders" evoked a pun: "tempering justice with Murphy." As he wrote in Falbo v. United States (1944), "The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution." (p. 561)

According to Frankfurter, Murphy was part of the more liberal "axis" of justices on the Court along with justices Wiley B. Rutledge, William O. Douglas, and Hugo L. Black; the group would for years oppose Frankfurter's "judicially restrained" conservative ideology.{{cite book |first= Howard |last= Ball |title= Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior |url= https://archive.org/details/hugolblackcoldst00ball |url-access= registration |year= 1996 |publisher= Oxford University Press, USA |isbn= 978-0-19-507814-5 |page= [https://archive.org/details/hugolblackcoldst00ball/page/14 14] |via= Internet Archive}} Douglas, Murphy and then Rutledge were the first justices to agree with Black's notion that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Bill of Rights' protection in it; this view would later become law.{{cite book |first= Howard |last= Ball |title= Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior |url= https://archive.org/details/hugolblackcoldst00ball |url-access= registration |year= 1996 |publisher= Oxford University Press, USA |isbn= 978-0-19-507814-5 |page= [https://archive.org/details/hugolblackcoldst00ball/page/212 212] |via= Internet Archive }}

Murphy is perhaps best known for his vehement dissent from the court's ruling in Korematsu v. United States (1944), which upheld the constitutionality of the government's internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. He sharply criticized the majority ruling as "legalization of racism."

This was the first time the word "racism" found its way into a Supreme Court opinion (Murphy had previously used the term twice in a concurring opinion in Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co. (1944){{ussc|name=Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co.|link=Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railway Co.|volume=323|page=192|pin=|year=1944}}. issued that same day). He would use that word again in five separate opinions before the word "racism" disappeared from Murphy's and the High Court's other opinions for almost two decades, not reappearing until the landmark decision of Loving v. Virginia (1967),{{cite web |url= http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=388&page=1 |title= Full text of Loving v. Virginia |at= 388 U.S. 1 |via= Findlaw.com |access-date= September 25, 2011 |archive-date= March 4, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090304070550/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=388&page=1 |url-status= live }}{{cite journal |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30274716_ITM |last1=Lopez |first1=Ian F. Haney |title='A Nation of Minorities': Race, Ethnicity and Reactionary Colorblindness |journal=Stanford Law Review |date=February 1, 2007 |access-date=September 25, 2011 |archive-date=January 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112045614/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30274716_ITM |url-status=live }} which struck down as unconstitutional the Virginia anti-miscegenation statute. (See also Jim Crow laws.)

Although Murphy was serving on the Supreme Court during World War II, he still longed to be part of the war effort and so he served at Fort Benning, Georgia as an infantry officer during court recesses.{{cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/frank_murphy/|title=Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court media on Frank Murphy|access-date=June 27, 2017|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305074641/https://www.oyez.org/justices/frank_murphy/|url-status=live}}

On January 30, 1944, almost exactly one year before Soviet liberation of the Auschwitz death camp on January 27, 1945, Justice Murphy unveiled the formation of the National Committee Against Nazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews. Serving as committee chair, he declared that it was created to combat Nazi propaganda "breeding the germs of hatred against Jews." This announcement was made on the 11th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany. The eleven committee members included U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace, 1940 Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie and Henry St. George Tucker, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.{{cite news|last=Meyer |first=Zlati |url=http://www.freep.com/article/20100124/NEWS06/1240467/1008/News06/Murphy-unveils-anti-Nazi-effort |title=Murphy Unveils Anti-Nazi Effort |work=Detroit Free Press |date=January 24, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223130810/http://www.freep.com/article/20100124/NEWS06/1240467/1008/News06/Murphy-unveils-anti-Nazi-effort |archive-date=February 23, 2014 }}

Murphy was among 12 nominated at the 1944 Democratic National Convention to serve as Roosevelt's running mate in the presidential election that year.{{Cite news |url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/440722convention-dem-ra.html |title=Truman Nominated for Vice Presidency |last=Catledge |first=Turner |date=1944-07-22 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2017-10-25 |archive-date=December 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206194751/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/440722convention-dem-ra.html |url-status=live }} He acted as chairman of the National Committee against Nazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews and of the Philippine War Relief Committee.{{cite web |url= http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/fdroosevelt/essays/cabinet/527 |work= American President, An Online Reference Resource |title= Franklin Roosevelt |access-date= November 18, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081122080510/http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/fdroosevelt/essays/cabinet/527 |archive-date= November 22, 2008 |url-status= dead |df= mdy-all }} The first committee was established in early 1944 to promote rescue of European Jews, and to combat antisemitism in the United States.{{cite book |first1= Abraham J. |last1= Edelheit |first2= Hershel |last2= Edelheit |name-list-style= amp |title= History of the Holocaust: A Handbook and Dictionary |location= Boulder |publisher= Westview Press |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0DkMHTRtQIYC |year= 1994 |isbn= 978-0-8133-2240-7 |page= 365 |via= Google Books }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Death and memory

Murphy died in his sleep at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on July 19, 1949, of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 59.{{cite web|url=http://www.hourdetroit.com/Hour-Detroit/September-2008/Frank-Murpheys-Law/index.php?cparticle=3&siarticle=2|title=(Frank) Murphy's Law|access-date=February 11, 2012|archive-date=May 25, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525164000/http://www.hourdetroit.com/Hour-Detroit/September-2008/Frank-Murpheys-Law/index.php?cparticle=3&siarticle=2|url-status=live}} Over 10,000 people attended his funeral in Detroit. He is buried in Our Lady of Lake Huron Catholic Cemetery in Sand Beach Township, Michigan, near Harbor Beach.{{cite journal| title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices| last=Christensen| first=George A.| journal=Yearbook 1983 Supreme Court Historical Society| location=Washington, D.C.| publisher=Supreme Court Historical Society| url=https://supremecourthistory.org/pub_journal_1983.html| volume=1983| pages=17–30| access-date=September 20, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html| archive-date=September 3, 2005| url-status=live}}

File:Justice Frank Murphy headstone.jpg, near Harbor Beach. He is buried near Dr. Manuel Teves, M.D. who was a town physician from the Philippines during WWII and had practiced medicine in Harbor Beach from the 1969 through the early 2000s.]]

The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice was home to Detroit's Recorder's Court and now houses part of Michigan's Third Judicial Circuit Court.{{cite web|url=http://www.waynecounty.com/prosecutor/findFMHJ.htm|title=Wayne County Prosecutor's webpage.|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090131103322/http://waynecounty.com/prosecutor/findFMHJ.htm|archive-date=January 31, 2009 |url-status=dead}} There is a plaque in his honor on the first floor, which is recognized as a Michigan Legal Milestone.{{cite web|url=http://www.michbar.org/programs/milestones.cfm|title=Michigan Legal Milestones.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114005642/http://www.michbar.org/programs/milestones.cfm|archive-date=January 14, 2009|df=mdy-all}}

Outside the Hall of Justice is Carl Milles's statue "The Hand of God".{{cite web|url=http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=39&CFID=6667146&CFTOKEN=45521831|title=Carl Milles sculptures, Detroit News.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121094046/http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=39&CFID=6667146&CFTOKEN=45521831|archive-date=January 21, 2013|df=mdy-all}} This rendition was cast in honor of Murphy and financed by the United Automobile Workers. It features a nude figure emerging from the left hand of God. Although commissioned in 1949 and completed by 1953, the work, partly because of the male nudity involved,[http://www.3106.net/img/milles02.jpg Photograph of Carl Milles' The Hand of God] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808051337/http://www.3106.net/img/milles02.jpg |date=August 8, 2008 }}, evidencing why it was put on top of a {{convert|24|ft|m|adj=on}} spire. was kept in storage for a decade and a half.{{cite book |last= Lidén |first= Elisabeth |title= Between Waters and Heaven: Carl Milles, Search for American Commissions |publisher= Almquist & Wiksell International |location= Stockholm |year= 1986}} The work was chosen in tribute to Murphy by Walter P. Reuther and Ira W. Jayne.{{cite news|url=http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=165 |work=The Detroit News' |first1=Pat |last1=Zacharias |title=The Monuments of Detroit |date=September 5, 1999 |access-date=September 25, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708060651/http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=165 |archive-date=July 8, 2012 |df=mdy }} It was placed on a pedestal in 1970 with the help of sculptor Marshall Fredericks, who was a Milles student.

Murphy is also honored with a museum in his home town, Harbor Beach, Michigan. Housed at his former residence, it contains numerous personal artifacts from his life and career, most notably from the Philippines. The Murphy Museum is open during the summer months, by appointment.

Murphy's personal and official files are archived at the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and are open for research. This also includes an oral history project about Murphy.{{cite web|url=http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/F/?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&local_base=bent_pub&request=Frank+Murphy|title=Bentley Historical Library.|access-date=March 19, 2008|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108181126/https://search.lib.umich.edu/catalog/F/?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&local_base=bent_pub&request=Frank+Murphy|url-status=live}} His correspondence and other official documents are deposited in libraries around the country.[http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/fm-lop.html List of repositories of Murphy papers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070821070306/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/fm-lop.html |date=August 21, 2007 }}. Note: this list does not mention the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library; nor does it mention a number of other sources otherwise referenced in this article. See also [http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/courts/supreme/judges/murphy/fm-bib.html lists in Bibliography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920161448/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/murphy/fm-bib.html |date=September 20, 2008 }}, including speeches and writings, of William Francis "Frank" Murphy, 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. See also {{cite news | title=Federal Judicial Center: Frank Murphy | date=December 12, 2009 | url=http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetMan?jid=1722 | access-date=December 12, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530155443/http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetMan?jid=1722 | archive-date=2010-05-30 | url-status=dead }}

In memory of Murphy, one of three University of Michigan Law School alumni to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Washington, D.C.–based attorney John H. Pickering, who was a law clerk for Murphy, donated a large sum of money to the law school as a remembrance, establishing the Frank Murphy Seminar Room.

Murphy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree by the University of Michigan in 1939.

The University of Detroit has a Frank Murphy Honor Society.{{cite web|url=http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/district%20court/MI/EDMI/judges/jac-bio.html|title=Frank Murphy Honor Society, University of Detroit honors Judge Julian Cook.|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090512175353/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/district%20court/MI/EDMI/judges/jac-bio.html|archive-date=May 12, 2009 |url-status=dead}}

The Sweet Trials: Malice Aforethought is a play written by Arthur Beer, based on the trials of Ossian and Henry Sweet, and derived from Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice.{{cite web|url=http://sweettrials.udmercy.edu/sweet_trial_play.htm|title=The Sweet Trials: University of Detroit Mercy|access-date=February 25, 2008|archive-date=June 20, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080620014920/http://sweettrials.udmercy.edu/sweet_trial_play.htm|url-status=live}}

The Detroit Public Schools named Frank Murphy Elementary in his honor.{{cite web |url=http://www.trulia.com/schools/MI-Detroit/Frank_Murphy_School/ |title=Frank Murphy School. |access-date=April 10, 2009 |archive-date=June 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605113652/http://www.trulia.com/schools/MI-Detroit/Frank_Murphy_School/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/schools/by-curriculum/EL/ |title=List of Detroit Public Elementary Schools. |access-date=April 10, 2009 |archive-date=April 9, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090409081259/http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/schools/by-curriculum/EL |url-status=live }}

Personal life

File:Can this be romance? Washington, D.C., March 24. Frequent companions on the bridal paths around the Capitol, Attorney General Frank Murphy and Miss Ann Parker are said to be romancing by a LCCN2016875315.jpg

Murphy never married or had children. He was the subject of "[r]umors of homosexuality [...] all his adult life".{{cite book |first1= Joyce |last1= Murdoch |first2= Deb |last2= Price |name-list-style= amp |title= Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court |url= https://archive.org/details/courtingjusticeg00murd |url-access= registration |location= New York |publisher= Basic Books |year= 2001 |page= [https://archive.org/details/courtingjusticeg00murd/page/18 18]|isbn= 9780465015139 }} According to Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court:

[a] gay reading of [biographies of Murphy] suggests that Murphy's homosexuality was hiding in plain sight. For more than 40 years, Edward G. Kemp was Frank Murphy's devoted, trusted companion. Like Murphy, Kemp was a lifelong bachelor. From college until Murphy's death, the pair found creative ways to work and live together. [...] When Murphy appeared to have the better future in politics, Kemp stepped into a supportive, secondary role, much as Hillary Clinton would later do for Bill Clinton.{{cite book |first1= Joyce |last1= Murdoch |first2= Deb |last2= Price |name-list-style= amp |title= Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court |url= https://archive.org/details/courtingjusticeg00murd |url-access= registration |location= New York |publisher= Basic Books |year= 2001 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/courtingjusticeg00murd/page/19 19–20]|isbn= 9780465015139 }}

As well as Murphy's close relationship with Kemp, Murphy's biographer, historian Sidney Fine, found in Murphy's personal papers a letter that "if the words mean what they say, refers to a homosexual encounter some years earlier between Murphy and the writer."Quoted in {{cite book |first1= Joyce |last1= Murdoch |first2= Deb |last2= Price |name-list-style= amp |title= Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court |url= https://archive.org/details/courtingjusticeg00murd |url-access= registration |location= New York |publisher= Basic Books |year= 2001 |page= [https://archive.org/details/courtingjusticeg00murd/page/19 19]|isbn= 9780465015139 }} The writer of the letter implied that he and Murphy had become lovers while Murphy was governor-general and congratulated Murphy on his appointment to the Supreme Court.

Murphy did have at least two female companions of note. Ann Parker was frequently seen horseback riding with Murphy in Washington during his tenure as U.S. Attorney General, leading to speculation of a romance in the press. At the time of his death, Murphy was engaged to Joan Cuddihy; the wedding was scheduled for the following month.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=weFhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3047,6545769&dq=joan+cuddihy&hl=en|title=Justice Murphy Engaged to Wed|newspaper=The Telegraph-Herald|date=July 24, 1949|access-date=August 18, 2020|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108181125/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=weFhAAAAIBAJ&pg=3047%2C6545769&dq=joan+cuddihy&hl=en|url-status=live}}

Bibliography

=General=

{{cite book| author = Kevin Boyle| title = Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vNHigIfcwaMC| date = April 19, 2005 | publisher = Holt Paperbacks| isbn = 978-0-8050-7933-3 }}
{{cite book| author = Sidney Fine| title = Frank Murphy| publisher = University of Michigan Press| url = https://archive.org/details/frankmurphy00sidn| url-access = registration| year = 1975| isbn = 978-0-472-32949-6 }}This and a number of other books on Murphy by Fine are part of a list of 50 "essential" Michigan history books selected by noted historians. {{cite web|url=http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-54504_50206_54518-57682--,00.html |title=50 essential Michigan History books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111116120012/https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-54504_50206_54518-57682--,00.html |archive-date=November 16, 2011 |publisher=Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries |access-date=September 25, 2011 |url-status=bot: unknown |df=mdy }}
{{cite book| author = Melvin G. Holli| title = The American Mayor: the best & the worst big-city leaders| url = https://archive.org/details/americanmayorbes0000holl| url-access = registration| year = 1999| publisher = Pennsylvania State University Press| isbn = 978-0-271-01877-5 }}
Howard, J. Woodford, Mr. Justice Murphy: A Political Biography (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968).
Greg Zipes. Justice and Faith: The Frank Murphy Story. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021.

=Footnotes=

=Notes=

External links

{{FJC Bio|1722|nid=1385526|name=Frank Murphy}}
[http://haldigitalcollections.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p4006coll2&CISOPTR=7&CISOBOX=1&REC=10 Gubernatorial photographic portrait of Frank Murphy, Michigan archives.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801013002/http://haldigitalcollections.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fp4006coll2&CISOPTR=7&CISOBOX=1&REC=10 |date=August 1, 2020 }}
National Governors Association, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110521204147/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=5f5ce8569a313010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=4b18f074f0d9ff00VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD Frank Murphy Biography]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20151019152957/http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?rgn1=vmc_all;op2=And;rgn2=vmc_all;med=1;q1=franklin;q2=roosevelt;size=20;c=vmc;back=back1224441260;subview=detail;resnum=4;view=entry;lastview=thumbnail;cc=vmc;entryid=x-10054;viewid=10054 Photograph, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and Frank Murphy, Virtual Detroit], The Detroit News.
[http://sweettrials.udmercy.edu/index.html The Sweet Trials] University of Detroit Mercy.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080305042046/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/sweet/sweet.html The Sweet Trials home page, Famous American Trials], University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Time magazine [https://web.archive.org/web/20071226194008/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19390828,00.html Frank Murphy on cover, August 28, 1939.]
{{cite magazine

|title=Death of an Apostle

|date=August 1, 1949

|magazine=Time

|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794891,00.html

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131023319/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794891,00.html

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=January 31, 2011

|access-date=August 14, 2008

}}

United States Department of Justice, [http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ls/agbiographies.htm#murphy Biography of U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy], usdoj.gov. Accessed March 29, 2024.