Clark, Charles E. (1889–1963)

• Author: Leonard W. Levy
• Pages: 420

Page 420

Charles Edward Clark, the son of a Connecticut farmer and a graduate of Yale College, achieved distinction as a legal educator and a federal judge. In 1919 he began teaching at Yale Law School, where he had earned his law degree, and became its dean in 1929. Within the year he had modernized the curriculum, stressing interdisciplinary studies. Originally a Republican, Clark became a New Dealer and in 1937 was the only law school dean to testify in favor of President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S court reorganization plan. In 1939 Roosevelt appointed him to the UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, Second Circuit. As a federal judge for twenty-five years he tended to be a liberal activist even though his opinions on the rights of the criminally accused strongly supported prosecutorial positions. But Clark's opinions favored trade unions, CIVIL RIGHTS, and government regulation of the economy. As a FIRST AMENDMENT absolutist, he eloquently and ardently championed views that Justices HUGO L. BLACK and WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS of the Supreme Court later endorsed.

LEONARD W. LEVY

(1986)

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