Frank Murphy

Frank Murphy
Former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court From: January 18, 1940 – July 19, 1949
Nominator	Franklin Roosevelt
Predecessor	Pierce Butler
Successor	Tom Clark
56th Attorney General of the United States From: January 2, 1939 – January 18, 1940
President	Franklin Roosevelt
Predecessor	Homer S. Cummings
Successor	Robert H. Jackson
35th Governor of Michigan From: January 1, 1937 – January 1, 1939
Predecessor	Frank Fitzgerald
Successor	Frank Fitzgerald
59 Mayor of Detroit From: September 23, 1930 – May 10, 1933
Predecessor	Charles Bowles
Successor	Frank Couzens
Information
Party	Democrat
Religion	Roman Catholic

Frank Murphy was a jurist and politician. Most notably, he was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the 56th United States Attorney General, the 35th Governor of Michigan and the 59th Mayor of Detroit, Michigan.

As a jurist, he is perhaps best known for his strong dissent in the case Korematsu v. United States, which controversially held as constitutional the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Murphy referred to the ruling as the "legalization of racism", saying, "Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life ... All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must accordingly be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution."

“	“The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution.”	”
—Frank Murphy

During Court recesses, Murphy served as an infantry officer in Fort Benning, Georgia.