VINSON, FREDERICK MOORE

"Freedom from discrimination by the States in the enjoyment of property rights was among the basic objectives sought to be effectuated by the framers of the Fourteenth amendment."
—Frederick Vinson

As the thirteenth chief justice, Frederick Moore Vinson led the U.S. Supreme Court from 1946 to 1953. Vinson rose to the Court after a long career as a lawyer, district attorney, member of Congress, federal appellate judge, and secretary of the treasury. His nomination to the Supreme Court by President harry s. truman followed a dramatic controversy over filling the position, and Vinson inherited a sharply divided Court. His effectiveness as an administrator helped

hold the justices together. Because he was generally disinterested in writing opinions, however, critics have judged his tenure harshly. Despite his liberal attitudes during his political career, he emerged as a predominantly conservative justice except for his support of civil rights.

Born on January 22, 1890, in Louisa, Kentucky, Vinson was the son of a jailer. He graduated from Kentucky Normal College in 1908. In 1909 and 1911, he earned bachelor of arts and laws degrees from Center College in Danville, Kentucky, with the highest marks ever recorded at that school. Establishing his law practice in his hometown, he practiced law for two years before serving as city attorney in 1913 and as district attorney from 1921 to 1924.

In the mid-1920s, Vinson's visibility as a prosecutor led him into national politics. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1923 to 1929 and again from 1931 to 1937. In his last four terms in Congress, he was a strong backer of President franklin d. roosevelt's liberal economic recovery program, known popularly as the new deal.

The support engendered a long relationship between the two men. In 1937 Roosevelt appointed Vinson to the federal bench, and he served from 1937 to 1943 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He became chief justice of the U.S. Emergency Court of Appeals in 1942 and the following year joined the Roosevelt administration as head of the Office of Economic Stabilization. A series of administrative positions culminated with Vinson's appointment as secretary of the treasury under President Truman in 1945.

In 1946 the death of Chief Justice harlan f. stone set off a controversy over who should be his successor. The question for Truman was whether he should elevate an associate justice or select an outsider. Two associate justices—robert h. jackson and hugo l. black—were known to want the job, and each threatened to resign if the other were nominated. To settle the conflict, Truman turned to Vinson, who had both the requisite experience and a calm temperament. Vinson's record of support for a strong federal government was also important to Truman.

During his seven years on the Court, Vinson more or less lived up to these hopes. His steady administration appears to have been effective during a tempestuous era on the Court. As a justice, however, he was less impressive. Vinson was rumored to have given the bulk of his opinion writing to his clerks. Moreover, his pragmatism showed no great philosophic appreciation of constitutional law. He generally voted conservatively except when supporting decisions that upheld the discrimination claims of African Americans; this valuable support for civil rights would be taken further by his successor, earl warren. At the same time, Vinson's anti-Communism fanned the flames of the cold war. In Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S. Ct. 857, 95 L. Ed. 1137 (1951), he upheld the convictions of American Communist party leaders.

Vinson's eagerness to bolster federal power can be seen in his most famous opinion, a dissent in youngstown sheet and tube co. v. sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 72 S. Ct. 863, 96 L. Ed. 1153 (1952). During the korean war, Truman temporarily seized control of most of the nation's steel mills in order to supply the military. The White House asserted that the seizure was necessary to prevent a national catastrophe, but the steel industry argued that the seizure was tantamount to lawmaking—a power held only by Congress. Although the majority in Youngstown Sheet held that the executive decision was unconstitutional, Vinson stated that Truman had acted "in full conformity with his duties under the Constitution."

Vinson died on September 8, 1953, while still serving on the Court. In retrospect, some critics have regarded his tenure as a failure: his lack of vision and his apparent disinterest in writing his own opinions have provoked charges that he was among the few outright failures in Supreme Court history. On balance, his administrative skills seem to have outstripped his judicial ability; he managed a deeply divided Court with tact and diplomacy.

further readings

St. Clair, James E., and Linda Gugin. 2002. Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky

Urofsky, Melvin I. 1997. Division and Discord: The Supreme Court under Stone and Vinson, 1941–1953. Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press.

cross-references

Chief Justice; Dennis v. United States.

Vinson, Frederick Moore (b. Louisa, Ky., 22 Jan. 1890; d. Washington, D.C., 8 Sept. 1953; interred Louisa, Ky.), chief justice, 1946–1953. The thirteenth chief justice was the son of a small‐town Kentucky jailer. He achieved the highest academic record in the history of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, earning his LL.B. degree. He soon became city attorney in his hometown. In 1921, he was elected district attorney, and three years later, was elected to Congress. After being defeated in the Republican landslide of 1928, Vinson was sent back to Congress in 1930, where he served four more terms, and on the Committee on Appropriations and the powerful Ways and Means Committee proved a staunch supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

His legislative skill and collegiality garnered Vinson strong congressional goodwill for later confirmations. President Roosevelt nominated Vinson for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1937. Vinson resigned from the court in May 1943 to become director of Economic Stabilization in the Roosevelt administration. His executive branch experience continued in a brief succession of positions of increasing responsibility (Federal Loan Administrator, director of War Mobilization and Reconversion), culminating with President Harry S. Truman's appointment to be secretary of the treasury in July 1945.

A flurry of speculation and political maneuvering followed the death of Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone in April 1946 over whether President Truman should elevate a sitting justice and appoint a new associate justice, or simply select a new chief from outside the Court. The infighting intensified when two different justices threatened Truman with their resignations to keep Justice Robert H. Jackson from being elevated. These bitter disagreements among the justices became personal and public. Truman apparently chose his longtime friend because of Vinson's experience in each of the three branches of government, because Vinson could be expected to support strong governmental action by the executive, and because he thought Vinson had the ability and personality to calm the Court.

That the public rancor dissipated somewhat may have been to Vinson's credit. Ideologically, Vinson usually voted with the conservative justices (Jackson, Felix Frankfurter, Harold Burton, and Stanley Reed) against the liberals (William O. Douglas, Wiley Rutledge, Frank Murphy, and Hugo Black). The conservative wing began to dominate the Court with the 1949 appointments of Justices Tom C. Clark and Sherman Minton.

Vinson was not a philosopher. He never undertook to formulate a broad or systematic view of the Constitution. He was a pragmatic man, guided by a few generalities: democracy is the ideal form of government by the informed judgment of the people; a strong government is essential to preserve individual liberty; and the president ought to lead the government.

During his tenure, the number of cases heard by the Court declined, and he assigned relatively few important cases to himself. One rumored criticism then, which since has become a Supreme Court norm, was that Vinson did all his “writing” with his hands in his pockets, outlining the general approach to his clerk and then suggesting but few revisions in the draft. His most famous opinion was his dissent in Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), known as the Steel Seizure Case. When the Court held by a 6‐to‐3 vote that President Truman's seizure of the steel mills during the Korean War was unconstitutional, Vinson sided with the president. Vinson's Cold War worries (see Communism and Cold War) were best exemplified in Dennis v. United States (1951), which affirmed criminal convictions against leaders of the American Communist party. Setting the stage for the successor Warren Court, he agreed with challenges brought by African‐Americans against various discriminatory state actions.

A 1970 poll of “experts” rated Vinson as one of eight “failures,” the only chief justice to be so categorized. Other scholars have labeled this characterization unfair. Vinson's tenure on the Court was shorter than most of his counterparts (seven years), and he presided over a Court divided by ideology and personality. His opinions were conservative, except in the area of civil rights, but not poorly reasoned.

Bibliography

C. Herman Pritchett , Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court (1954).
Symposium, In Memoriam: Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, Northwestern University Law Review 49 (1954): 1–75.

Thomas E. Baker

Frederick Moore Vinson 1890–1953, 13th chief justice of the United States (1946–53), b. Louisa, Ky. He received his law degree from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky (1911). He served (1923–29, 1931–38) in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was notable as a fiscal expert. He resigned from Congress to become associate justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and later chief justice of the U.S. Emergency Court of Appeals. He was director of the Office of Economic Stabilization (1943–45) and served briefly as federal loan administrator (Mar., 1945) and as director of the Office of War Mobilization (Apr.–July, 1945) before becoming Secretary of the Treasury (1945–46). Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone's death led to his appointment as chief justice by President Truman, a position which he held until his death. Although not remembered for an outstanding career on the Supreme Court, Vinson did make several significant decisions concerning internal security legislation. In American Communications v. Douds (1950) he found requirements that members of labor unions swear to their nonmembership in the Communist party constitutional; in Dennis v. United States (1951), he upheld the conviction of eleven leaders of the Communist party for violations of the Smith Act .