U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He was an American legal scholar, attorney and jurist, best-known for his tenure as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1916–1939. Brandeis was the first Jew ever to be appointed to the Supreme Court. He was an important American litigator, Justice, advocate of privacy, progressive causes, and developer of the Brandeis Brief. In addition, he helped lead the American Zionist movement. He, scion of a wealthy Jewish family, was born in Louisville, Kentucky on November 13, 1856. Brandeis displayed his intellectual abilities and love of learning at an early age. He graduated first in his Harvard Law School class in 1877 at the age of 21. A successful Boston lawyer from 1879–1916, he distinguished himself by investigating insurance practices and by establishing in 1907 the Massachusetts savings-bank insurance. After defending from 1900 to 1907 the public interest in Boston utility cases, he served from 1907 to 1914 as counsel for the people in proceedings involving the constitutionality of wages and hours laws in Oregon, Illinois, Ohio, and California. In the 1907 case Muller v. Oregon, Brandeis persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court that minimum-hours legislation for women was reasonable—and not unconstitutional. He collected empirical data from hundreds of sources, including Oregon feminists. In what became known as the Brandeis Brief, the report provided social authorities on the issue of impact of long working hours on women. This was the first instance in the United States that social science had been used in law and changed the direction of the Supreme Court and of U.S. law. The Brandeis Brief became the model for future Supreme Court presentations. From 1907 to 1913, he opposed the monopoly of transportation in New England and successfully argued from 1910 to 1914 before the Interstate Commerce Commission against railroad-rate increases. In 1910 as one of the counsel in the congressional investigation of Richard A. Ballinger, he exposed the anti-conservationist views of President Taft's Secretary of the Interior. As an arbitrator (in 1910 of a strike of New York garment workers, which were mostly Jewish, he became acutely aware of the problems of poor Jewish immigrants were having in America and afterward became a leader of the Zionist movement. An enemy of industrial and financial monopoly, he formulated the economic doctrine of the New Freedom that Woodrow Wilson adopted in his 1912 presidential campaign. In 1916 he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Supreme Court, although opposition was voiced by anti-Semites and certain business interests. Long an advocate of social and economic reforms, he maintained a position of judicial liberalism on the bench. With Oliver Wendell Holmes, he often dissented from the majority. After Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President in 1933, he was one of the few justices who voted to uphold most of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. He retired from the bench in 1939. President Roosevelt appointed William O. Douglas to replace him. He died two years later. Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts is named after him.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He was an American legal scholar, attorney and jurist, best-known for his tenure as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1916–1939. Brandeis was the first Jew ever to be appointed to the Supreme Court. He was an important American litigator, Justice, advocate of privacy, progressive causes, and developer of the Brandeis Brief. In addition, he helped lead the American Zionist movement. He, scion of a wealthy Jewish family, was born in Louisville, Kentucky on November 13, 1856. Brandeis displayed his intellectual abilities and love of learning at an early age. He graduated first in his Harvard Law School class in 1877 at the age of 21. A successful Boston lawyer from 1879–1916, he distinguished himself by investigating insurance practices and by establishing in 1907 the Massachusetts savings-bank insurance. After defending from 1900 to 1907 the public interest in Boston utility cases, he served from 1907 to 1914 as counsel for the people in proceedings involving the constitutionality of wages and hours laws in Oregon, Illinois, Ohio, and California. In the 1907 case Muller v. Oregon, Brandeis persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court that minimum-hours legislation for women was reasonable—and not unconstitutional. He collected empirical data from hundreds of sources, including Oregon feminists. In what became known as the Brandeis Brief, the report provided social authorities on the issue of impact of long working hours on women. This was the first instance in the United States that social science had been used in law and changed the direction of the Supreme Court and of U.S. law. The Brandeis Brief became the model for future Supreme Court presentations. From 1907 to 1913, he opposed the monopoly of transportation in New England and successfully argued from 1910 to 1914 before the Interstate Commerce Commission against railroad-rate increases. In 1910 as one of the counsel in the congressional investigation of Richard A. Ballinger, he exposed the anti-conservationist views of President Taft's Secretary of the Interior. As an arbitrator (in 1910 of a strike of New York garment workers, which were mostly Jewish, he became acutely aware of the problems of poor Jewish immigrants were having in America and afterward became a leader of the Zionist movement. An enemy of industrial and financial monopoly, he formulated the economic doctrine of the New Freedom that Woodrow Wilson adopted in his 1912 presidential campaign. In 1916 he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Supreme Court, although opposition was voiced by anti-Semites and certain business interests. Long an advocate of social and economic reforms, he maintained a position of judicial liberalism on the bench. With Oliver Wendell Holmes, he often dissented from the majority. After Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President in 1933, he was one of the few justices who voted to uphold most of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. He retired from the bench in 1939. President Roosevelt appointed William O. Douglas to replace him. He died two years later. Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts is named after him.

Bio by: Edward Parsons