Supreme Court justice Brandeis was born in Louisville and had tremendous intellect and character.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis : Justice William O. Douglas later wrote, “Brandeis was a militant crusader for social justice whoever his opponent might be. He was dangerous not only because of his brilliance, his arithmetic, his courage. He was dangerous because he was incorruptible … [and] the fears of the Establishment were greater because Brandeis was the first Jew to be named to the Court.”[4] On June 1, 1916, he was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 47 to 22,[4] to become one of the most famous and influential figures ever to serve on the high court. His opinions were, according to legal scholars, some of the “greatest defenses” of freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever written by a member of the Supreme Court.
Notable Facts
- At Harvard Law school his eyesight was failing under dim gaslights and extensive reading. The school doctors suggested he quit. He didn’t. He paid classmates to read textbooks to him. He graduated Valedictorian and set a record for the highest grades that lasted for 80 years.
- He could afford a yacht but preferred to paddle a canoe
- Brandeis disliked wealthy persons who engaged in conspicuous consumption or were ostentatious.
Wayne McIntosh writes of him, “In our national juristic temple, some figures have been accorded near-Olympian reverence … a part of that legal pantheon is Louis D. Brandeis – all the more so, perhaps because Brandeis was far more than a great justice. He was also a social reformer, legal innovator, labor champion, and Zionist leader … And it was as a judge that his concepts of privacy and free speech ultimately, if posthumously, resulted in virtual legal sea changes that continue to resonate even today.”