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
Military Service
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	World War I World War II

William Francis (Frank) Murphy (April 13, 1890 – July 19, 1949) 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. He was also the Governor-General of the Philippines, taught at the University of Detroit Mercy for five years and served as a captain in occupied Germany during World War I.

During his tenure as attorney general, he enacted the first civil rights law in the Justice Department.

As a Politician

Mayor of Detroit

Murphy became Mayor of Detroit during the first years of the Great Depression. Murphy combatted this reality by convincing industrialists to turn over their factories to be converted to boardinghouses for the homeless, and allowed delinquent property owners to pay their taxes over a seven-year period. Murphy set up apple vendors - where the elderly or handicapped bought apples for 2 cents, and then resold them for a nickel - at the program’s peak, 650 Detroiters were supporting their families by selling apples.

Murphy organized meetings of mayors from across the nation - this would lead to the establishment of the U.S. Conference of Mayors - he would be their first president; this group convinced Congress to provide direct federal aid to the cities.

Governor-General of the Philippines

As a reward for campainging for Franklin Roosevelt, Murphy was appointed to be Governor-General of the Philippines. There he attempted to guide the Philippines’ transition from a territory to a commonwealth. He was a popular leader - in 1935 he became the first United States High Commissioner of the Philippines.

Governor of Michigan

Murphy returned from the Philippines to run against incumbent Frank Fitzgerald for the Governorship of Michigan - he won by a narrow margin. When Murphy took office, more than 100,000 General Motors workers were in the third day of a sit-down strike in Flint. On January 11th, 1937, policed stormed the protestors, leading to a brawl that ended with 27 injured. Murphy called in the National Guard to protect the protestors, ignored a court order to remove the strikers and served as a mediator between the United Auto Workers and GM; on February 11th he announced an agreement had been made.

Career in law

U.S. Attorney Eastern District of Michigan

Murphy served as a United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1919-1922. He won all but one of the cases he prosecuted.

Recorder's Court Judge

From 1923 to 1940, Murphy served as a Recorder's Court Judge. He presided over the famous Sweet murder trials - Dr. Ossian Sweet, an African-American, had been charged with the murder of a white man who was shot outside of his home. (Sweet was acquitted after a second trial.) Gary Maveal of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law noted that "Murphy’s fairness to the prosecution and defense was remarkable; his fairness to the defendant was unique for the times."

Murphy changed the bail system so that the poor could more easily make bond and established an independent traffic court.

Attorney General

President Franklin Roosevelt nominated Murphy to serve as the United States Attorney General in 1939; there Murphy established a Civil Liberties SEction in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.

Tenure on the Supreme Court

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's desire to be part of the war effort led him to serve as an infantry officer in Fort Benning, Georgia.