Clark, Tom Campbell (b. Dallas, Tex., 23 Sep. 1899; d. New York City, N.Y., 13 June 1977; interred Restland Memorial Park, Dallas, Tex.), associate justice, 1949–1967. Tom Clark grew up in Dallas, Texas, in a family of lawyers. After military service in World War I, Clark graduated from the University of Texas in 1921 and its law school in 1922. He and a brother worked in his father's law firm for a few years; subsequently, he was appointed civil district attorney of Dallas.
Clark's career shifted from Texas to Washington when he joined the Justice Department in 1937 as a special assistant. During World War II he briefly coordinated the Japanese‐American relocation; later, he headed the Anti‐Trust and Criminal Divisions. In 1945, shortly after Franklin D.
Roosevelt's death, President Harry S Truman appointed him attorney general. Clark's unusual rise through the ranks of the Justice Department was aided by the sponsorship of Texas politicians and by his own political support for Truman's contested vice‐presidential candidacy in 1944.
On the death of Justice Frank
Murphy in July 1949, Truman nominated Clark to replace him. His nomination was widely expected, but not so widely applauded. Charges of cronyism from the press and criticism of his zeal for national security from civil liberties groups helped fuel three days of Senate debate prior to his confirmation by a vote of 73 to 8.
Clark's years on the Supreme Court were marked by independence, the authorship of key opinions in criminal justice and
religion cases, and a growing interest and involvement in the improved administration of justice. His political independence was put to the test relatively soon after appointment; in 1952, he was one of six justices in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) to strike down President Truman's seizure of the nation's steel mills during the Korean War, provoking derisive and bitter reaction from Truman. He also showed ideological independence, floating between the Court's conservative and liberal blocs. Although Clark regularly and vigorously sided with the government in loyalty and
national security cases (prompting historian Richard Kirkendall to view him as a Cold War zealot on the bench), he also authored opinions of the Court in leading cases restricting the power of government.
In
Mapp v. Ohio (1961), Clark wrote his most significant opinion: a controversial decision prohibiting, in state criminal trials, the use of evidence obtained through unreasonable search and seizure. This
exclusionary rule still stands today (see
Fourth Amendment). Clark also penned key decisions in religion cases, including
Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), which banned recitation of the Lord's prayer and Bible reading in public schools, and
U.
S. v.
Seeger (1965), a Vietnam‐era case that broadened the opportunity for young men to attain
conscientious objector status based on religious belief. In
Mapp and
Schempp, Clark crafted majority opinions for a nonunanimous, highly divided Court.
Clark's retirement from the Court in 1967 is not without controversy and claims of political machinations. When President Lyndon Johnson appointed Clark's son, Ramsey, as attorney general in 1967, Tom Clark promptly retired from the Court, citing potential conflicts of interest and the importance of maintaining the “appearance of justice.” Some legal scholars, including Michael Ariens, contend that Johnson appointed Ramsey so as to force the elder Clark from his Supreme Court seat, so the president could then appoint the Court's first African‐American justice, Thurgood
Marshall. Alternatively, political scientist Akiba Covitz, who served as archivist for the papers of Justice Abe
Fortas, suggests that Clark offered Johnson (through Fortas) his resignation from the Court in exchange for Ramsey's appointment as attorney general.
Clark's post‐Supreme Court life was full and distinguished. He served as a senior judge and became a full‐time champion for judicial reform. Clark was a tireless writer and public speaker who worked with legal organizations to stimulate improvements in court procedures, rule making, and in‐service judicial education. Indeed, he helped to establish the Federal Judicial Center and served as its first director from 1968 to 1970.
Clark's public career spanned more than forty years, highlighted by his eighteen years on the Supreme Court. Scholars generally view him as the most successful of Truman's four Court appointees, although Truman himself came to regret the appointment. In all, Clark left a substantial legacy of Court decisions and improvements in the federal judiciary.
Bibliography
Michael Ariens , Supreme Court Justices: Tom Clark, http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/clark.html.
Akiba Covitz , Exhibit: Letter to the Chief, Legal Affairs (January–February 2003), http://www.Legalaffairs.org/issues/January‐February 2003.
Richard Kirkendall , Tom C. Clark, in The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789–1969, edited by Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, vol. 4 (1969), pp. 2665–2695.
Alvin T. Warnock , Associate Justice Tom C. Clark: Advocate of Judicial Reform (Ph.D. diss., 1972).
John Paul Ryan
