Arthur Goldberg
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| Arthur Goldberg | |
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| In office October 1, 1962 – July 25, 1965 |
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| Nominated by | John F. Kennedy |
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| Preceded by | Felix Frankfurter |
| Succeeded by | Abe Fortas |
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| In office January 21, 1961 – September 20, 1962 |
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| President | John F. Kennedy |
| Preceded by | James P. Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | W. Willard Wirtz |
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| In office 1965 – 1968 |
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| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Adlai Stevenson |
| Succeeded by | George W. Ball |
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| Born | August 8, 1908 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | January 19, 1990 (aged 81) Washington, D.C. |
Arthur Joseph Goldberg (August 8, 1908 – January 19, 1990) was an American statesman and jurist who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Supreme Court Justice and Ambassador to the United Nations.
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[edit] Early life
Goldberg was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago, the youngest of eight children of Jewish immigrants. The family originally came from a shtetl called Zenkhov in the Ukraine. Goldberg's father, a produce peddler, died in 1916, forcing Goldberg's siblings to quit school and go to work to support the family. As the youngest child, Goldberg was allowed to continue school, graduating from high school at age 16.
Goldberg's interest in the law was sparked by the famous 1923 murder trial of Leopold and Loeb, wealthy young Chicagoans who were spared the death penalty with the help of their high-powered defense attorney, Clarence Darrow. Goldberg would later point to this case as inspiration for his opposition to the death penalty on the bench, as he saw how inequality of social status could lead to unfair application of the death penalty.
Goldberg earned a distinguished reputation as a student at the Northwestern University School of Law, where he edited the law review, graduating in 1930.
In 1931, Goldberg married art student Dorothy Kurgans. They had one daughter, Barbara (Cramer), and a son, Robert.
[edit] Labor lawyer and Kennedy Administration
Goldberg became a prominent labor lawyer, representing striking Chicago newspaper workers on behalf of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1938. He served in the Office of Strategic Services as chief of the Labor Desk, an autonomous division of the American intelligence agency that was charged with the task of cultivating contacts and networks within the European underground labor movement during World War II. Appointed general counsel to the CIO in 1948, Goldberg served as a negotiator and chief legal advisor in the merger of the American Federation of Labor and CIO in 1955. Goldberg also served as general counsel of the United Steelworkers of America.
Goldberg was by this time a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and in labor union politics. President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg to two positions. The first was United States Secretary of Labor, where he served from 1961-1962. As Secretary, he served as a mentor to the young Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The second was as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, replacing Felix Frankfurter, who had resigned because of poor health.
Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Bobby Kennedy, also wanted to assassinate Goldberg.
[edit] Supreme Court
Despite his short time on the bench, Goldberg played a significant role in the Court's jurisprudence, as his liberal views on constitutional questions shifted the Court's balance toward a broader construction of constitutional rights. His best-known opinion came in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), arguing that the Ninth Amendment supported the existence of an unenumerated right of privacy.
Perhaps Goldberg's most influential move on the Court involved the death penalty. Goldberg argued in a 1963 internal Supreme Court memorandum that imposition of the death penalty was condemned by the international community and should be regarded as "cruel and unusual punishment," in contravention of the Eighth Amendment. Goldberg was the first to argue this position: prior to Goldberg's memo, no Supreme Court case had addressed the question of whether the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment. Finding support in this position from two other justices (William J. Brennan and William O. Douglas), Goldberg published an opinion dissenting from the Court's denial of certiorari in a case, Rudolph v. Alabama, involving the imposition of the death penalty for rape, in which Goldberg cited the fact that only five nations responding to a United Nations survey indicated that they allowed imposition of the death penalty for rape, including the U.S., and that 33 states in the U.S. had outlawed the practice.
Goldberg's dissent sent a signal to lawyers across the nation to challenge the constitutionality of capital punishment in appeals. As a result of the influx of appeals, the death penalty effectively ceased to exist in the United States for the remainder of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Supreme Court was forced to consider the issue in the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia, where the Justices, in a 5-4 decision, effectively suspended the death penalty laws of states across the country on the ground of the capricious imposition of the penalty. That decision would be revisited in 1976's Gregg v. Georgia, where the justices voted to allow the death penalty under some circumstances; the death penalty for rape of an adult female victim, however, would be struck down in 1977's Coker v. Georgia.
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, one of his law clerks was future Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Another was prominent criminal law professor Alan Dershowitz. Goldberg resigned from the Supreme Court to become the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
[edit] Resignation from the Supreme Court
In 1965, Goldberg was persuaded by President Johnson to resign his seat on the court to replace the late Adlai Stevenson as the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Goldberg wrote in his memoirs that he resigned in order to have influence in keeping the peace in Vietnam and that after the crisis had passed he expected he would be reappointed to the Supreme Court by Johnson. "I had an exaggerated opinion of my capacities. I thought I could persuade Johnson that we were fighting the wrong war in the wrong place [and] to get out."[1] David Stebenne, Goldberg's biographer, adds "Many observers, then and later, found this answer hard to accept." He suggests that "Johnson must have had some influence over Goldberg that induced him [to resign from the Supreme Court]". Johnson knew that for a party thrown in Johnson's honor in 1962, a Goldberg aide Jerry Holleman solicited contributions from wealthy supporters of Johnson including Billy Sol Estes. Holleman accepted responsibility and there was no public awareness of Goldberg and Johnson's involvement.[2]
[edit] UN Ambassador
In 1967, Goldberg was a key draftee of Resolution 242, which followed the 1967 six-day-war between Israel and the Arab states. While interpretation of that resolution has subsequently become controversial, Goldberg was very clear that the resolution does not obligate Israel to withdraw from all of the captured territories. He stated that:
The notable omissions in language used to refer to withdrawal are the words the, all, and the June 5, 1967, lines. I refer to the English text of the resolution. The French and Soviet texts differ from the English in this respect, but the English text was voted on by the Security Council, and thus it is determinative. In other words, there is lacking a declaration requiring Israel to withdraw from the (or all the) territories occupied by it on and after June 5, 1967. Instead, the resolution stipulates withdrawal from occupied territories without defining the extent of withdrawal. And it can be inferred from the incorporation of the words secure and recognized boundaries that the territorial adjustments to be made by the parties in their peace settlements could encompass less than a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories [italics by Goldberg].[3]
[edit] Subsequent career
Goldberg, frustrated with the war in Vietnam and longing to return to the bench, resigned from the ambassadorship in 1968.
Goldberg was mentioned as a potential nominee for Chief Justice when Earl Warren announced his retirement in 1968, but was passed over in favor of Abe Fortas (whose nomination for Chief Justice was eventually successfully filibustered). He was for a short time associated with the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
In 1970, Goldberg ran for Governor of New York, but proved an underwhelming campaigner and was defeated decisively by incumbent Nelson Rockefeller. Subsequently, Goldberg returned to law practice in Washington, D.C., and served as President of the American Jewish Committee. Under President Jimmy Carter, Goldberg served as United States Ambassador to the Belgrade Conference on Human Rights in 1977, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1978.
Goldberg died in 1990. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
[edit] 1970 New York State Democratic ticket
- Governor: Arthur Goldberg
- Lieutenant Governor: Basil Paterson
- Comptroller: Arthur Levitt Sr.
- Attorney General: Adam Walinsky
- U.S. Senate: Richard Ottinger
[edit] References
- ^ Stebenne, David L. (1996). Arthur J. Goldberg, New Deal Liberal. New York: Oxford University Press, pp 348-351. ISBN 0-19-50710-50.
- ^ Editors of Time (May 18, 1962). "Tauter & Tauter". Time. “Just two days before Holleman confirmed that he had asked Estes and other Texans to pick up the tab for a January dinner Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg gave for Lyndon Johnson, but said he backed off when he learned that Goldberg's policy was to pay for all such dinners himself. Goldberg promptly offered to produce canceled checks to prove he had paid for the dinner. Said Holleman of Billie Sol, in words reminiscent of a previous Democratic Administration: "I have not and I never will deny him as a friend."”
- ^ UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
[edit] Further Reading
- Goldberg, Arthur J. AFL-CIO: Labor United. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
- Goldberg, Arthur J. Equal Justice: The Supreme Court in the Warren Era. Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1971. ISBN 081010363X
- Goldberg, Arthur J. The Defenses of Freedom: The Public Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ed. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
[edit] External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by James P. Mitchell |
United States Secretary of Labor Served Under: John F. Kennedy January 21, 1961 – September 20, 1962 |
Succeeded by W. Willard Wirtz |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Felix Frankfurter |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States October 1, 1962 – July 25, 1965 |
Succeeded by Abe Fortas |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Adlai Stevenson |
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 1965 – 1968 |
Succeeded by George W. Ball |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Frank O'Connor |
Democratic Nominee for Governor of New York 1970 |
Succeeded by Hugh Carey |
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