Frank Murphy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Murphy
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office February 5, 1940 – July 19, 1949
Nominated by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Pierce Butler
Succeeded by	Tom C. Clark
56th United States Attorney General
In office January 2, 1939 – January 18, 1940
Preceded by	Homer S. Cummings
Succeeded by	Robert H. Jackson
35th Governor of Michigan
In office January 1, 1937 – January 1, 1939
Lieutenant	Leo J. Nowicki
Preceded by	Frank Fitzgerald
Succeeded by	Frank Fitzgerald
1st High Commissioner of the Philippines
In office 1935 – 1936
Preceded by	(post made)
Succeeded by	Paul V. McNutt
72nd Governor-General of the Philippines
In office July 15, 1933 – November 15, 1935
Preceded by	Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
Succeeded by	(post abolished): Manuel L. Quezon as the President of the Philippine Commonwealth
Died	July 19, 1949 (aged 59) Detroit, Michigan
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	none
Alma mater	University of Michigan Law School Trinity College, Dublin
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	World War I World War II

William Francis (Frank) Murphy (April 13, 1890 – July 19, 1949) was a politician and jurist from Michigan. He served as First Assistant U.S. District Attorney, Eastern Michigan District (1920-23), Recorder's Court Judge, Detroit (1923-30). Mayor of Detroit (1930–33), the last Governor-General of the Philippines (1933-35), U.S. High Commissioner of the Philippines (1935–36), Governor of Michigan (1937-39), United States Attorney General (1939–40), and United States Supreme Court Associate Justice (1940–49).

[edit] Early life

Frank Murphy was born in Harbor Beach, Michigan, (then known as "Sand Beach")^[1] in 1890 to Irish parents, John T. Murphy and Mary Brennan,^[2] who raised him as a devout Catholic.^[3] He followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a lawyer. He attended the University of Michigan Law School, and graduated with a BA in 1912 and LLB in 1914. He was a member of the senior society Michigamua. ^[4] This was a combined literary and law course, a program in which students would first earn a baccalaureate degree in liberal arts and then proceed to the study of law. Murphy was stricken with Diphtheria in the winter of 1911 but was allowed to begin his course in the Law Department, from which he received his LL.B. degree in 1914. He performed graduate work at Lincoln's Inn in London and Trinity College, Dublin, which was said to be formative for his judicial philosophy. In particular, he developed a need to decide cases based on his more holistic notions of justice, eschewing technical legal arguments. As one commentator wrote of his later supreme court service, he 'tempered justice with Murphy.'^[5]

He served in the U.S. Army during World War I, achieving the rank of Captain with the occupation Army in Germany before leaving the service in 1919.

Murphy opened a private law office in Detroit and soon became the Chief Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. He opened the first civil rights section of a U.S. Attorney's office.

He taught at the University of Detroit for five years.

Frank Murphy served as a Judge in the Detroit Recorder's Court from 1923 to 1930, and made many administrative reforms in the operations of the court:

• Detroit's growing "car culture" was accommodated by his assistance in creating an independent Traffic Court.
• He established a professional, nonpolitical probation department as an arm of the court, so that probation could be better aimed at social service and rehabilitation.
• He helped create a bond bureau as part of the court's operations, so that pretrial release would be more evenly available to rich and poor alike.^[6] See generally, Bail bondsman.

While on Recorder's Court, he established a reputation as a trial judge. He was a presiding judge in the famous (and racially-charged) murder trials of Dr. Ossian Sweet and his brother, Henry Sweet, in 1925 and 1926. Clarence Darrow— then one of the most prominent trial lawyers in the country — was lead counsel for the defense.^[7] After an initial mistrial of all of the black defendants, Henry Sweet — who admitted that he fired the weapon which killed a member of the mob surrounding Dr. Sweet's home and was retried separately — was acquitted by an all-white jury on grounds of the right of self-defense.^[8] The prosecution then elected to not prosecute any of the remaining defendants. Judge Murphy's rulings were material to the outcome of the case.^[9]

[edit] Politics

Frank Murphy fulfilled a career of public service unequaled by any Michigan citizen. In a lifetime of just 59 years, he served such diverse positions as first assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, a Recorder's Court Judge, Mayor of Detroit, Governor-General and High Commissioner of the Philippines, Governor of Michigan, Attorney General of the United States, and Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.^[10]

[edit] U.S. Attorney Eastern District of Michigan (1919–1922)

Frank Murphy was appointed and took the oath of office as first assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan on August 9, 1919.^[11] He was one of three assistant attorneys in the office.

When Murphy began his career as a federal attorney, the workload of the attorney's office was increasing at a rapid rate, mainly due to the advent of national prohibition. The government's excellent record in winning convictions in the Eastern District was partially due to Frank Murphy's record of winning all but one of the cases that he prosecuted. Murphy was so effective in addressing a jury that employees in the Federal Building would gather to the courtroom to hear him perform. Murphy practiced law privately to a limited extent while he was still a federal attorney. He resigned his position as a United States attorney on March 1, 1922.^[12] Murphy had several offers to join private practices but decided to go it alone and formed a partnership with Edward G. Kemp.^[13]

[edit] Recorder's Court (1923–1930)

He ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the United States Congress in 1920, when national and state Republicans swept Michigan, but used the race to build a political base. He drew upon his legal reputation and growing political connections to win a seat on the Recorder's Court, Detroit's criminal court.^[14] In 1923, Frank Murphy was elected as judge of the Recorder's Court on a non-partisan ticket by one of the largest majorities ever cast for a judge in Detroit. Murphy took office on January 1, 1924 and served seven years as a judge of the Recorder's Court during the Prohibition Era (1924-1930).

His best-known trials were the two murder trials of Dr. Ossian Sweet, an African-American charged with the murder of a white man. The Sweet case attracted national attention, not the least because the defense brought in the country’s most famous attorney, Clarence Darrow. After a jury of 12 white men could not agree on a verdict in the first trial, Murphy declared a mistrial. Sweet’s brother, the only defendant to admit to firing a gun, was tried next. Thanks to Darrow’s brilliant and theatrical defense, he was acquitted — a stunning victory that affirmed the right of a black man to defend his property in the face of racist threats.^[13]

[edit] Mayor of Detroit (1930–1933)

In 1930, Murphy ran as a Democrat and was elected Mayor of Detroit. He served from 1930 to 1933, during the first years of the Great Depression. He presided over an epidemic of urban unemployment, a crisis in which 100,000 people were unemployed in the summer of 1931. He named an unemployment committee of private citizens from businesses, churches, and labor and social service organizations to identify all residents who were unemployed and not receiving welfare benefits. The Mayor’s Unemployment Committee raised funds for its relief effort and worked to distribute food and clothing to the needy, and a Legal Aid Subcommittee volunteered to assist with the legal problems of needy clients. In 1933, as Mayor he convened in Detroit and organized the first convention of the United States Conference of Mayors. They met and conferred with President Franklin D. Roosevelt — and Murphy was elected as its first president.^[15] As a mayor, he believed in efficient and good government, not just more government.^[13]

Frank Murphy was an early and enthusiastic supporter of President Roosevelt and the New Deal, helping Roosevelt to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state of Michigan.

In fact, his principal biographer, University of Michigan Professor Sidney Fine, noted that "he was a new dealer even before there was a New Deal.”^[13]

Author Melvin G. Holli rated Murphy an exemplary mayor (one of the best) and highly effective leader, who brought together the right skills and strategies to deal with the opportunities and challenges presented. Murphy is noted as being one of the foremost examples of compounding his success as a big city mayor to a highly productive leap into national politics and office.^[16]

[edit] Governor-General of the Philippines (1933–1935)

By 1933, after Murphy’s second mayoral term, the reward of a big government job was waiting. Roosevelt appointed Murphy as the Governor-General of the Philippines. In January 1935, a Philippine military camp which would later serve as the headquarters of the country's armed forces was named after him. It was later renamed Camp Aguinaldo after the Philippines' first president.

Frank Murphy demonstrated his generous sympathy for the plight of the Filipino masses, especially for the land-hungry and oppressed tenant farmers, and emphasized the need for social justice.^[17]

[edit] High Commissioner to the Philippines (1935–1936)

When his position as Governor-General was abolished in 1935, he stayed on as the United States High Commissioner until 1936. That year he served as a delegate from the Philippine Islands to the Democratic National Convention which renominated President Roosevelt for a second term.

High Commissioner to the Philippines was the title of the personal representative of the President of the United States to the Commonwealth of the Philippines during the period 1935-1946. The office was created by the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, which provided for a period of transition from direct American rule to the complete independence of the islands on July 4, 1946.^[18]

[edit] Governor of Michigan (1937–1939)

Murphy was elected the 35th Governor of Michigan on November 3, 1936, defeating Republican incumbent Frank Fitzgerald, and served one two-year term. During his two years in office, an unemployment compensation system was instituted and mental health programs were also improved.

The United Automobile Workers engaged in an historic sit-down strike at the General Motors' Flint plant. The Flint Sit-Down Strike was a turning point in national collective bargaining and labor policy. Importantly, during the sit-down strike, the governor brought out the National Guard, but refused to order the troops to suppress it.^[19] Then Governor Murphy successfully mediated an agreement and end to the confrontation; G.M. recognized the U.A.W. as bargaining agent under the newly adopted National Labor Relations Act (or Wagner Act). This had an incalculable effect upon the fortunes of organized labor and institutionally recognized its legitimacy.^[20] In the next year the UAW saw its membership grow from 30,000 to 500,000 members. As later noted by the British Broadcasting System, this strike was "the strike heard round the world."^[21]

In 1938, Murphy was defeated by his predecessor, Fitzgerald — who became the only governor from Michigan to succeed and precede the same person.

His success as Michigan governor (Time Magazine put him on its August 28, 1939 cover) and U.S. Attorney General^[22] led Time to talk of him as the Democratic presidential or vice presidential candidate in 1940.^[23] and to feature him on its cover.^[24]

[edit] Attorney General of the United States (1939–1940)

In 1939, President Roosevelt appointed Murphy as his 56th U.S. Attorney General. During the one year he served, he established a Civil Liberties Section (later called the Civil Rights Section) in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. The section was designed to centralize enforcement responsibility for the Bill of Rights and civil rights statutes.^[25]

He was involved in a public and widespread crusade against organized crime syndicates, in prosecuting such notable figures including Kansas City's Democratic boss Thomas Pendergast and newspaper publisher Moses Annenberg and other political racketeers. Under his administration, the United States Department of Justice in Detroit indicted 16 alleged communists and fellow travelers for having recruited volunteers for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade supporting Spanish Republican forces against Francisco Franco and the Nationalists. This earned Murphy censure from liberals.

While being outwardly aggressive as Attorney General, the internal administrative accomplishments of Murphy's administration are reportedly mixed. He brought his Michigan political team with him to the Department of Justice, which demoralized professionals in the Department of Justice.^{[clarification needed]}

The November 1939 death of Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler created a vacancy. Frank Murphy reluctantly accepted a promotion to Associate Supreme Court Justice. He was replaced in the Attorney General's position by Robert H. Jackson. Frank Murphy turned out to be a great Supreme Court champion of civil liberties.^[26]

[edit] Supreme Court service

After a year as Attorney General, President Roosevelt nominated Murphy on January 4, 1940, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, filling the seat vacated by Pierce Butler. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 16, 1940, and was sworn in on January 18, 1940.^[27] The timing of the appointment put Justice Murphy on the cusp of the Hughes^[28] and the Stone courts.^[29] Upon the death of Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, Murphy then served in the court led by Frederick Moore Vinson, who was confirmed in 1946.^[30]

Justice Murphy took an expansive view of individual liberties, and the limitations on government he found in the Bill of Rights.^[31]

While serving on the Court, Murphy was a voice for the protection of individual rights. John P. Frank, in "The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions", called him the Supreme Court's "most consistent voice for kindness, tolerance and humanity.".^[32]

• Despite being expansive in his view of free speech, Justice Murphy wrote for the court a recognition that there are limits in the use of so-called 'fighting words'. In Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942) a case involving "insulting or 'fighting' words . . . are no essential part of any exposition of ideas" and therefore are not protected under the First Amendment.^[33]

• In particular, he was a consistent, vocal and recognized champion of First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of expression. In fact, in Cohen v. California 403 U.S. 15 (1971), Justice Black expressly recognized that “the case Cohen appears to be well within the sphere of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire 315 U.S. 568 (1942), in which Mr. Justice Murphy, a known champion of First Amendment freedoms, wrote for a unanimous bench.”^[34] The Chaplinsky decision notwithstanding, Justice Murphy’s record on the First Amendment comports with Black’s characterization — that Frank Murphy was a “known champion of First Amendment freedoms.” This “champion” should take his rightful place in the pantheon of free-speech giants.

• Among Murphy's most famous dissenting opinions^[35] was in the case of Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944),^[36] in which he charged that by upholding the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II the Court was sinking into "the ugly abyss of racism." This was the first time that the word "racism" found its way into the lexicon of words used in Supreme Court opinion (he used it twice in a concurring opinion in Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co. 323 U.S. 192^[37] (1944) issued that same day). He would use that word in five separate opinions. However the word "racism" disappeared with Murphy and from the court for almost two decades, not reappearing until the landmark decision of Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)^[38][39] which struck down as unconstitutional the Virginia anti-miscegenation statute. See also Jim Crow laws.

• Justice Murphy wrote the opinion of the court in Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88 (1940), which overturned the Alabama law that forbade all forms of labor picketing. Picketing was protected under the First Amendment as a form of free speech: He wrote: "In the circumstances of our times the dissemination of information concerning the facts of a labor dispute must be regarded as within that area of free discussion that is guaranteed by the Constitution . . . Labor relations are not matters of mere local or private concern. Free discussion concerning the conditions in industry and the causes of labor disputes appears to us indispensable to the effective and intelligent use of the processes of popular government to shape the destiny of modern industrial society."^[40]

• In Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25 (1949)^[41] he wrote an important dissent (and a concurring opinion with Justice Rutledge) on the issue of the exclusionary rule as a sanction for Fourth Amendment search and seizure violations. He brought to bear his perspective and experience as a trial judge and prosecutor. This dissent was ultimately adopted by the Supreme Court 22 years later in the landmark decision, Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961).^[42]

• In Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944), his fierce dissent declared: "Religious freedom is too sacred a right to be restricted or prohibited in any degree without convincing proof that a legitimate interest of the state is in grave danger."^[43]

• During World War II, Murphy supported individual's First Amendment rights, even as patriotism and nationalism became increasingly fervent. Some state governments passed laws requiring children to salute the flag and pledge allegiance each morning in school. Some religious groups protested these compulsory acts of patriotism. They argued their religion forbade their worship of secular images. Murphy voted with the majority to strike down such a law in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628^[44]. In doing this about face from his earlier concurrence in Minersville School District v. Gobitis 310 U.S. 586 (1940),^[45] Justice Murphy believed he had rectified an unfortunate and mistaken decision made when he was new to the court.^[4] The opportunity to reverse directions was presented when the lone dissenter, Harlan Stone became Chief Justice, and two new court members were added, so that Justice Jackson's opinion echoed Stone's earlier dissent.^[46]

• In Falbo v. United States 320 U.S. 549, 561 (1944),^[47] Justice Murphy wrote: “The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution.” As J. Woodford Howard noted, "Aiding the poor and promoting industrial peace in the Great Depression were major achievements; his civil liberties evangelism was often vindicated by later decisions of the Court."^[48]

• "He spoke for the Court in internally divisive battles." In Schneiderman v. United States 323 U.S. 118^[49] (1943) he addressed deportation of an alleged communist for a claimed misrepresentation on an earlier request for citizenship, and held the government to a high burden of proof. In Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. v. United Mine Workers of America, Local No. 6167 325 U.S. 161 (1945)^[50] he addressed portal-to-portal pay.^{[48][clarification needed]}

• Murphy thought high standards of criminal procedure should apply: in war crime trials — In re Yamashita 327 U.S. 1 (1946)^[51]; searches and seizures — Wolf v. Colorado 338 U.S. 25 (1949); and state cases —Adamson v. California 332 U.S. 46 (1947);^[48]

Justice Murphy authored 199 opinions: 131 majority; 68 in dissent.^[6] Other important majority opinions were: Industrial Commission v. McCartin, 330 U.S. 622 (1947) (which seeks to harmonize policy problems of workers' rights, workers' compensation in two different states, and their interaction with the Full Faith and Credit Clause, Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution);^[52] and Trupiano v. United States, 334 U.S. 699 (1948)^[53] which concerns the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. An important dissent not yet mentioned is in Jones v. City of Opelika, 316 U.S. 584 (1942),^[54][55]

"His strengths were practical experience, moral courage, compassion, and devotion to human rights." He made a mark when he "strongly supported the post‐1937 legal revolution by which the Roosevelt Court legitimated vast public power to regulate economic affairs and championed less material rights of individuals and politically impotent minorities."^[48]

Opinions differ about him and his jurisprudential philosophy. He has been acclaimed as a legal scholar and a champion of the common man.^[6] Justice Felix Frankfurter disparagingly nicknamed Murphy "the Saint", criticizing his decisions as being rooted more in passion than reason. On the other hand, it has been said he was "Neither legal scholar nor craftsman," who was criticized "for relying on heart over head, results over legal reasoning, clerks over hard work, and emotional solos over team play" in what "the Great Pulpit" (Murphy's own phrase.)^[48]

One of Justice Murphy's biographers called him a "priestly jurist" and "narcissistic."^[56] It is generally agreed that he principally made his greatest mark by being a liberal counterpoint to the court in his separate concurring and dissenting opinions.^[57]

A complex, narcissistic bachelor, he was a priestly jurist whose support of African‐Americans, aliens, criminals, dissenters, Jehovah's Witnesses, Native Americans, women, workers, and other outsiders evoked a pun: “tempering justice with Murphy.” As he wrote in Falbo v. United States (1944), “The law knows no finer hour than when it cuts through formal concepts and transitory emotions to protect unpopular citizens against discrimination and persecution” (p. 561). Aiding the poor and promoting industrial peace in the Great Depression were major achievements; his civil liberties evangelism was often vindicated by later decisions of the Court.

According to Justice Frankfurter, Murphy was part of the more liberal "Axis" of justices on the Court, along with Justices Rutledge, Douglas, and Black; the group would for years oppose Frankfurter's judicially-restrained ideology.^[58] Douglas, Murphy, and then Rutledge were the first justices to agree with Hugo Black's notion that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Bill of Rights protection into it; this view would later become law.^[59]

Frank Murphy was one of twelve Catholic justices – out of 110 total through the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts – in the history of the Supreme Court.^[60]

Even though he was serving on the Supreme Court during World War II, he still longed to be part of the war effort. Consequently, during recesses of the Court, he served In Fort Benning, Georgia as an infantry officer.^[61]

He acted as chairman of the National Committee against Nazi Persecution and Extermination of the Jews, and of the Philippine War Relief Committee.^[62] The first committee was established in early 1944 to promote rescue of European Jews, and to combat antisemitism in the United States.^[63]

[edit] Death and legacy

• Murphy died at age of fifty-nine of coronary thrombosis during his sleep at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. His death was mourned by many.^[64] His remains are interred at Our Lady of Lake Huron Cemetery of Harbor Beach, Michigan.^[65] Over 10,000 people attended his funeral in Detroit. He was never married, but was engaged to be married in August to Joan Cuddihy.

• The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, named for him, was formerly home to Detroit's Recorder's Court and now houses part of Michigan's Third Judicial Circuit Court. It is located at 1441 St. Antoine, Detroit, Michigan 48226.^[66] There is a plaque in his honor on the first floor, which is recognized as a Michigan Legal Milestone.^[67]

• Outside the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice is a Carl Milles's statue (one of his last) called "The Hand of God".^[68] This rendition was cast in honor of Frank Murphy. It features a nude figure emerging from the left hand of God. Although commissioned in 1949 and completed by 1953, the work, partly because of the male nudity involved,^[69] was kept in storage for over a decade and a half.^[70] It was placed on a pedestal in 1970 with the help of sculptor Marshall Fredericks, who was a Milles' student. The statue was commissioned by the United Automobile Workers^[71] and was paid for by individual members^[72] or UAW locals,^[68] depending upon which source you want to credit.

• Murphy's personal and official files are archived at the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and are open for research. This also includes an oral history project about Frank Murphy.^[73] However, his correspondence and other official documents are deposited in more than 40 libraries around the country.^[74][75]

• In memory of Justice Murphy, one of three University of Michigan Law School alumni to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice (the other two are William Rufus Day, and George Sutherland), Washington D.C.-based attorney John H. Pickering (who was a law clerk for Murphy and offered some insight into his thought process) donated a large sum to the law school as a remembrance, establishing the Frank Murphy Seminar Room.^[4] See List of law clerks of the Supreme Court.

• Frank Murphy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law degree by the University of Michigan in 1939.^[76]

• His (and his father's) old law office is the Frank Murphy Memorial Museum in downtown Harbor Beach, Michigan and contains period furnishings.^[77] His home is there, too, and is part of the Museum.^[78] The museum also houses the largest collection of Philippine cultural artifacts in the United States.^[79] Museum historian Barb Mc Gowan notes: "Exhibits include the table where the Flint negotiations were hashed out, plus one of the largest collections of Filipino cultural artifacts in the United States, such as native garb, ceremonial shields, wood carvings, Fernando Amorsolo paintings and a quilt a princess embroidered for Murphy." The Museum is open to the public during the summer months, through Labor Day, noon-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and by appointment. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for kids.^[80][81]

• A memorial book was published by the Frank Murphy Memorial Museum Foundation.^[82]

• He is memorialized in three official Michigan Historical Markers:^[83]
  • The Flint Sit-Down (Registered Site S0497B, Erected 1980, Flint)
  • Frank Murphy (Registered Site S0285, Erected 1967, Harbor Beach)
  • Dr. Ossian Sweet / Home (Registered Site S0461, Erected 2004, Detroit)

• The State Bar of Michigan has memorialized Frank Murphy in three locations for "Michigan Legal Milestones", namely:
  • Ossian Sweet Murder trial at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, Detroit^[84]
  • Justice Murphy authored the 1948 Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. decision^[85] , which was an important Supreme Court labor law decision interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act and portal-to-portal pay involving employee working time. It is located at the Riverfront Gazebo by the Municipal Building in Mount Clemens. It was dedicated on September 1, 1994.
  • Murphy's Dissent in Korematsu v. United States, protesting the decision to uphold exclusion orders imposed upon persons of Japanese descent during World War II. The plaque was dedicated and placed in front of the Frank Murphy home in Harbor Beach on August 16, 1996.^[67][86]

• The University of Detroit has a "Frank Murphy Honor Society."^[87]

• The Sweet Trials: Malice Aforethought is a play written by Arthur Beer, based on the trials of Ossian and Henry Sweet, and derived from Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice.^[88]

• The Detroit Public Schools named Frank Murphy Elementary school in his honor. It is at 23901 Fenkell in the City of Detroit.^[89]

• Frank Murphy was immortalized on coinage for the Philippines in 1936. He appears on the 50 Centavos and One Peso coin (Frank Murphy and Manuel Quezon). See, Coins of the Philippine peso.

• Murphy’s estate was probated at $11,000, "not quite enough to satisfy the $12,000 in debts he left behind."^[90]

• Murphy had written to an old friend: “I have never deviated from the path I set out for myself when I first started in public life. . . . So many public servants are new-born liberals only to be sound conservatives the next day, forgetting the inarticulate and the plundered poor.”^[90]

• Frank Murphy's professional motto was: "Speak softly and hit hard."

• According to one biographer, Murphy said his ruling principle in his life was: "I should like to belong to that small company of public servants and others who are content to do some of the homely and modest task of perfecting integrity in government and making government more efficient and orderly."^[91]

[edit] Personal life

Deb Price and Joyce Murdoch present evidence in the book “Courting Justice” ^[92] that Murphy was gay and lived with a longtime male companion.

[edit] See also

United States Army portal

World War I portal

World War II portal

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Reading notes

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Author: Frank Murphy

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Frank Murphy

• Frank Murphy quotations – a few at "Brainy Quote".
• Gubernatorial photographic portrait of Frank Murphy, Michigan archives.
• National Governors Association, Frank Murphy Biography.
• Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court media on Frank Murphy
• Photograph, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and Frank Murphy, Virtual Detroit, The Detroit News.
• Political Graveyard, Frank Murphy.
• The Sweet Trials University of Detroit Mercy.
• The Sweet Trials home page, Famous American Trials, University of Missouri, Kansas City.
• Time Magazine cover, Frank Murphy, August 28, 1939.
• "Death of an Apostle". Time Magazine. 1949-08-01. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794891,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-14. 
• University of Michigan Law Quadrangle Notes on Frank Murphy.
• United States Conference of Mayors on Frank Murphy
• United States Department of Justice, Biographies of U.S. Attorneys General, Frank Murphy.

v • d • e United States Attorneys General Randolph • Bradford • Lee • Lincoln • Breckinridge • Rodney • Pinkney • Rush • Wirt • Berrien • Taney • Butler • Grundy • Gilpin • Crittenden • Legaré • Nelson • Mason • Clifford • Toucey • Johnson • Crittenden • Cushing • Black • Stanton • Bates • Speed • Stanberry • Evarts • Hoar • Akerman • Williams • Pierrepont • Taft • Devens • MacVeagh • Brewster • Garland • Miller • Olney • Harmon • McKenna • Griggs • Knox • Moody • Bonaparte • Wickersham • McReynolds • Gregory • Palmer • Daugherty • Stone • Sargent • W D Mitchell • Cummings • Murphy • Jackson • Biddle • T C Clark • McGrath • McGranery • Brownell • Rogers • Kennedy • Katzenbach • W R Clark • J N Mitchell • Kleindienst • Richardson • Saxbe • Levi • Bell • Civiletti • Smith • Meese • Thornburgh • Barr • Reno • Ashcroft • Gonzales • Mukasey • Holder

v • d • e Cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) Vice President John Nance Garner (1933–1941) • Henry A. Wallace (1941–1945) • Harry S. Truman (1945) Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1933–1944) • Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1944–1945) Secretary of War George Dern (1933–1936) • Harry Hines Woodring (1936–1940) • Henry L. Stimson (1940–1945) Secretary of the Treasury William Hartman Woodin (1933–1934) • Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1934–1945) Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings (1933–1939) • Frank Murphy (1939–1940) • Robert H. Jackson (1940–1941) • Francis Biddle (1941–1945) Postmaster General James Farley (1933–1940) • Frank Comerford Walker (1940–1945) Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson (1933–1939) • Charles Edison (1940) • Frank Knox (1940–1944) • James Forrestal (1944–1945) Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (1933–1945) Secretary of the Agriculture Henry A. Wallace (1933–1940) • Claude R. Wickard (1940–1945) Secretary of Commerce Daniel Calhoun Roper (1933–1938) • Harry Hopkins (1939–1940) • Jesse Holman Jones (1940–1945) • Henry A. Wallace (1945) Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1933–1945)

v • d • e Governors of Michigan Territorial (1805–1837) Hull · Cass · Porter · Mason · Horner State (since 1837) Mason · Woodbridge · Gordon · Barry · Felch · Greenly · Ransom · Barry · McClelland · Parsons · Bingham · Wisner · Blair · Crapo · Baldwin · Bagley · Croswell · Jerome · Begole · Alger · Luce · Winans · Rich · Pingree · Bliss · Warner · Osborn · Ferris · Sleeper · Groesbeck · Green · Brucker · Comstock · Fitzgerald · Murphy · Fitzgerald · Dickinson · Van Wagoner · Kelly · Sigler · Williams · Swainson · Romney · Milliken · Blanchard · Engler · Granholm

v • d • e American Governors-General of the Philippines Merritt · Otis · MacArthur · Taft · Wright · Ide · Smith · Forbes · Gilbert · Harrison · Yeater · Wood · Gilmore · Stimson · Gilmore · Davis · Butte · Roosevelt · Murphy Smallcaps indicate military governors · Italics indicate acting governors

Supreme Court of the United States

The Hughes Court Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (1930–1941) 1940–1941: J.C. McReynolds | H.F. Stone | O.J. Roberts | H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy Feb-Jul 1941: H.F. Stone | O.J. Roberts | H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | (vacancy) The Stone Court Chief Justice: Harlan Fiske Stone (1941–1946) 1941–1942: O.J. Roberts | H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | J.F. Byrnes | R.H. Jackson 1943–1945: O.J. Roberts | H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | R.H. Jackson | W.B. Rutledge 1945–1946: H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | R.H. Jackson | W.B. Rutledge | H.H. Burton The Vinson Court Chief Justice: Frederick Moore Vinson (1946–1953) 1946–1949: H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | F. Murphy | R.H. Jackson | W.B. Rutledge | H.H. Burton