Byrnes, James Francis

Byrnes, James Francis (b. Charleston, S.C., 2 May 1879; d. 9 Apr. 1972, Columbia, S.C.; interred Trinity Cemetery, Columbia), associate justice, 1941–1942. A self‐taught South Carolina lawyer, Byrnes was the son of James F. Byrnes and Elisabeth E. McSweeney, a dressmaker. He studied at St. Patrick's parochial school, worked as a court stenographer and reporter, and read law in his spare time.

“Jimmy” Byrnes served as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives (1911–1925) and from 1931 to 1941 as a member of the U.S. Senate. Byrnes was a crucial Southern advocate of the New Deal, particularly effective in behind‐the‐scenes negotiations in support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies. He also earned the president's gratitude in working for a compromise in the wake of the ill‐advised court‐packing bill. Byrnes counseled against pressing for a vote on the bill because several decisions of 1937 revealed a new alignment on the Court and because of the resignation of Justice Willis Van Devanter. Byrnes allegedly asked, “Why run for a train after you've caught it?”

In June 1941 Roosevelt nominated Byrnes to fill the seat vacated by Harlan Fiske Stone who had been appointed chief justice. During his one term on the Court, Byrnes wrote only sixteen majority opinions. He wrote no concurring or dissenting opinions. His brief Supreme Court service is remembered principally for his decision in Edwards v. California (1941), which struck down a California law that made it a crime to bring indigents into the state. In his opinion for the five‐member majority, Byrnes argued that California's “anti‐Okie” law placed an unacceptable burden upon interstate commerce. Among Byrnes's other majority opinions was a decision limiting the right to strike on board ship, a decision exempting a New York teamsters' strike from provisions of a federal anti‐racketeering law, and a decision striking down a Georgia law that made it a criminal offense not to fulfill a labor contract (see Labor).

At President Roosevelt's request, Byrnes left the Court in October 1942 to serve as the director of economic stabilization. Less than a year later he accepted another presidential appointment to head the new War Mobilization Board. An able administrator, Byrnes made the most of this post, becoming popularly known as “assistant president.” Shortly after Roosevelt's death, the new president, Harry S. Truman, nominated his good friend and former Senate colleague to become secretary of state. After two years in Truman's cabinet, Byrnes resigned and returned to South Carolina. In 1951 he was elected overwhelmingly governor of the Palmetto State. As a Southern governor in the 1950s, Byrnes was a racial moderate: he supported segregation in schools and public facilities but successfully pushed for a bill to suppress the Ku Klux Klan (see Separate but Equal Doctrine).

Byrnes was clearly more comfortable and effective in his positions as a legislator, administrator, and executive than as a justice. Of South Carolina's many noted political figures, only John C. Calhoun and Strom Thurmond held as many important governmental positions or had as significant a national stature as had James F. Byrnes. Appropriately, Byrnes's autobiography is titled All in One Lifetime.

John W. Johnson