Justice Goldberg at RU

by Tyler Hall

     Who is Arthur Goldberg? Many have probably never heard of the man. He was however, a very influential figure in Twentieth Century American politics.

Arthur Joseph Goldberg was born on August 8, 1908 in Chicago to Jewish Russian immigrants. When his father died, his elder siblings went to work, his mother ensured her youngest, Arthur, stayed in school. After he graduated high school, the Leopold and Loeb murder trial of 1923 prompted him to study law. In 1926 he attended the Northwestern University School of Law, where he got a Bachelor’s of Science at 19.

In 1930 he was awarded the Juris Scientiae Doctor degree from the Illinois Bar Association. In 1931 he married Dorothy Kurgons, an art major, at Northwestern University. Throughout the Great Depression Goldberg observed the plight of hard-working Americans. He opened up his own private practice in 1933, and often would represent the striking Chicago newspaper employees. During World War II, Goldberg served as an officer in the U.S. Army and was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a prelude to the CIA. In 1948 Goldberg served as the general consul for the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the United Steelworkers of America, and was instrumental in the merging of these two unions.

 

 

 

 

For all of his ties to the labor unions, Goldberg became a prominent figure in the Democrat Party and became vocal in national politics. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed Goldberg as the Secretary of Labor. In 1962, with the resignation of Justice Felix Frankfurter from the Supreme Court, President Kennedy nominated Goldberg to fill the seat. The more “noteworthy cases argued before the Court during” his time included: Gibson v. Florida Investigation Committee (1963), Escobedo v. Illinois (1964), and Zemel v. Rusk (1965).[1] In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Justice Goldberg if he would serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, which he did until he resigned in 1969. This was a rare moment in Supreme Court history, usually justices’ serve on the Court for a lifetime. In 1970, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York against incumbent Nelson A. Rockefeller. From 1987-1989, Justice Goldberg was a visiting professor at Radford University, where he taught a judiciary course under the political science department.

Donald Dedmon, President of RU at the time, started what was known as the visiting professor program. One evening the political science department held a meeting to discuss bringing in a visiting professor. The idea was to have “a famous scholar” come visit.[2] Dr. William Hrezo, then the department chair, suggested looking higher, a retired congressman or judge. Dr. Sidney Pearson, a professor in the department, got in touch with Henry Abraham, a professor at the University of Virginia. Abraham suggested that Dr. Pearson contact Justice Goldberg, because, of all the retired judges Abraham knew, Goldberg was in the best health. Dr. Pearson then made an appointment with his office and traveled up to Washington, D.C. to meet him. Justice Goldberg accepted and started in the Fall 1987 semester.

When Justice Goldberg visited the campus he admitted that he was “a little apprehensive” about teaching undergraduate students.[3] He was however, still excited about the task and said, “I’m interested in finding out about students, their values today and if they’re as materialistic as some people say.”[4] Dr. Pearson at the time said, “I think Mr. Goldberg will be pleasantly surprised with the caliber of students in this course;” commenting that “[t]hey’re not law students, but they’re a top-notch group.”[5]  His schedule was a once a week class in judicial studies during the fall, and would serve as a lecturer during the spring. When he stayed in town, he would stay in an apartment complex that housed the visiting professors, located on Jefferson Street, the building is no longer there. According to Dr. Pearson, the fridge had to be stocked with Perrier.

Students and faculty were intimidated. Dr. Pearson said there was an “awe about him.”[6] Dr. Hrezo said that he had an “I’ve earned the right to be listened to” mindset, but was not a snob about it.[7] He was very polite and did not come off as the big man on campus. Dr. Pearson said that the justice was “very friendly” and “I really liked Justice Goldberg.”[8] No one at RU had the experience Justice Goldberg did, according to Dr. Hrezo he was in charge of his class room. Dr. Hrezo said that Justice Goldberg enjoyed interacting with students, and had an ability to put people at ease.

Justice Goldberg was good friends with Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and through him, would get copies of Supreme Court cases for his students at RU to study and argue, whether for or against. Once a semester he would take his students up to Washington so that they could go to the Court and sit in on a case. Unlike everyone else who could only be present for part of the case, Justice Goldberg’s students got to stay for the whole hearing. Afterwards he would take them back to the chambers of one of the justice’s.

Through Justice Goldberg’s time at RU, he and Dr. Pearson became good friends. Dr. Hrezo said that despite their political differences they got along, and that Justice Goldberg respected Dr. Pearson. He was “intensely bipartisan,” said Dr. Pearson.[9] So much so that in the 1930s, Justice Goldberg leant Everett Dirksen $500 for a medical procedure. Dirksen, a Republican, was the Senate Minority Leader in 1962 and told Kennedy that he would announce the nomination of his good friend, Arthur Goldberg to the Supreme Court.[10] Dr. Pearson said that Justice Goldberg liked to argue, and did not care if you agreed with him or not.

Justice Goldberg told Dr. Pearson some interesting stories about his previous professions. While in the OSS he knew Julia Childs, the famous French chef, and Douglass Fairbanks, Jr., the movie star. On one occasion, swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn approached Justice Goldberg with an idea that he, Flynn, would be dropped behind enemy lines and strike a blow against the Nazis; Justice Goldberg thought he was out of his mind. Dr. Pearson said the justice really enjoyed his time on the Court and always thought of himself as, Justice Goldberg. He was a Kennedy man, but did not think much of Johnson.[11]

Justice Goldberg, as Dr. Hrezo put it, was “one of the most important figures in American government.”[12] Though he was the Secretary of Labor and the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, he is primarily remembered as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He certainly is not remembered for his time at RU as a visiting professor. Radford University can however, take delight in the fact that he was here for three years, and that his private book collection is in compact storage located in McConnell Library.

Bibliography

William Hrezo. Interview by author. October 1, 2013.

Sidney Pearson. Interview by author. October 14, 2013.

Radford University Office of Public Information. September 4, 1987. Radford University Press               Release.

“The Supreme Court Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg.” Bibliographical Note. Accessed September               3, 2013. http://goldberg.law.northwestern.edu

 

 

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