In April 1945, Justice Robert H. Jackson accepted President Truman’s appointment to serve as U.S. chief prosecutor of Nazi arch-criminals. That Spring, Justice Jackson finished his Supreme Court term work, juggling final conferences, opinions, attending presidential meetings, staff-building, and a work trip to Europe. That Summer, as the Court was in recess, Jackson handled diplomacy in London and managed pretrial work there, in Paris, in Germany, and elsewhere. That September, Jackson returned briefly to Washington, and indeed to his Supreme Court chambers. But he was not doing Court work. He was on self-granted leave, consulting the president and getting ready to prosecute Nazis, which ultimately caused him to miss the next full Term of the Court.
On the 80th anniversary of Justice Jackson’s September 1945 visit to Washington, Jackson biographer John Q. Barrett will recount some of these unprecedented events and challenges.
John Q. Barrett is the Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law at St. Johns University in New York. He teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and Legal History courses. Professor Barrett is also the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, a former U.S. government lawyer and investigator, and a regular media commentator on law, government, and history.