Burton, Harold (1888–1964)

• Author: Michael E. Parrish
• Pages: 279-280

Page 279

Probably no member of the United States Supreme Court enjoyed greater affection from his colleagues on the bench than Justice Harold Burton, whom FELIX FRANKFURTER once described as having "a kind of a boy scout temperament," and whom others praised for his kindness, reasonableness, and unfailing integrity. "There is no man on the bench now who has less pride of opinion," Frankfurter noted, "? or is more ready to change positions, if his mind can be convinced. And no vanity guards admission to his mind." Burton, a former mayor of Cleveland and United States senator from Ohio, enjoyed several other distinctions as well. Named to the Court in 1945, he was the only Republican appointed between 1933 and 1953; he also proved to be the most liberal of HARRY S. TRUMAN'S four appointees, which, considering the nature of the competition, did not demand much liberalism.

Although dubbed by the press as one member of Truman's law firm, which also included FRED M. VINSON, TOM C. CLARK, and SHERMAN MINTON, Burton broke ranks with the President on the most crucial test of executive power during his tenure, when he joined Justice HUGO L. BLACK'S opinion in YOUNGSTOWN SHEET & TUBE CO. V. SAWYER (1952), which declared Truman's seizure of the nation's steel mills illegal in the absence of congressional legislation.

With the notable exception of JOINT ANTI-FASCIST REFUGEE COMMITTEE V. MCGRATH (1951), however, Burton routinely upheld the Truman administration's efforts to destroy the American Communist party and to purge from the federal government suspected subversives during the high tide of the post-1945 Red Scare. He voted with the majority, for instance, in AMERICAN COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION V. DOUDS (1950), in DENNIS V. UNITED STATES (1951), and in Bailey v. Richardson (1951), in which the VINSON COURT sustained the noncommunist oath provisions of the TAFT-HARTLEY ACT, the conviction of eleven top Communist party leaders under the Smith Act, and the federal government's LOYALTY AND SECURITY PROGRAM.

Apart from Minton and STANLEY F. REED, Burton became the most virulent antiradical on the bench during the 1950s. In Slochower v. Board of Education (1956) he dissented against Clark's opinion voiding the dismissal of a professor who had invoked his right AGAINST SELF-INCRIMINATION during an investigation into his official conduct. He also dissented in SWEEZY V. NEW HAMPSHIRE (1957), when the Court reversed the conviction of...