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Felix Frankfurter

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice

The Resume

    (November 15, 1882-February 22, 1965)
    Born in Vienna, Austria
    Graduate of Harvard Law School
    Founding member of the ACLU (1920)
    Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (1939-62)
    Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963)

Why he might be annoying:

    He attracted so many lawyers to New Deal agencies that they were dubbed 'Felix's Happy Hot Dogs.'
    He was asked by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to recommend candidates for a vacancy on the Supreme Court; FDR rejected all the suggestions and nominated Frankfurt himself instead.
    He insisted on including the phrase 'with all deliberate speed' when the Court ordered school desegregation, which numerous school boards used as an excuse to delay integration for years.
    During the Court's biweekly conferences, he would lecture fellow justices for half an hour or more.
    Earl Warren said, 'All Frankfurter does is talk, talk, talk. He drives you crazy.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    Despite an impressive academic record, he had trouble finding a job after law school due to anti-semitism.
    He helped defeat a proposal to limit the number of Jewish students allowed at Harvard (1921).
    He was the first Supreme Court justice to hire an African-American law clerk (1948).
    He complained that liberal justices on the court 'started with a result,' then tried to find a legal argument to justify it.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 14 Votes: 78.57% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 28 Votes: 32.14% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 17 Votes: 64.71% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 31 Votes: 70.97% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 17 Votes: 23.53% Annoying