Ryan Moore ‘25
Historian
When I nominated myself as the Law Weekly Historian 1L year, I thought it would be a fun, low-commitment opportunity to write about the history of the Law School. I could show up to our weekly meetings, eat some free pizza, rant about the toxic UVA Law subreddit,[1] and hash out some articles. What I did not foresee is that I would actually have to do research. Unlike covering an event at the Law School, UVA history articles require hours of research and refining a topic into an interesting story.
This week I do not have “hours” to research my article, because it is currently Sunday morning and I am sitting in Caplin Auditorium between rehearsals of the Libel Show. But just like BuzzFeed, I am not above phoning in an article by using and abusing the listicle format. Without further ado, here are the top 5 things you need to know about one of the two alums UVA Law sent to the Supreme Court: Stanley Forman Reed.
1. Stanley Forman Reed had a long career.
Reed was born on December 31, 1884, in Minerva, Kentucky. He began practicing law in Kentucky in 1910 and was elected to the Kentucky General Assembly two years later. After the outbreak of war in April 1917, Reed joined the U.S. Army and received his commission as a first lieutenant in the Army Intelligence Division.[2] He left the Army in 1918 and returned to practice law. Prior to his time on the bench, he served as U.S. Solicitor General from 1935 to 1938.
2. President Roosevelt appointed Reed to the Court.
Reed was nominated to the Supreme Court on January 15, 1938, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to succeed Justice George Sutherland. His confirmation process was swift, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate ten days later.[3] He spent the next nineteen years on the Supreme Court as something akin to the Justice Anthony Kennedy of his day, providing the key fifth vote in racial desegregation, civil rights, and economic regulation cases. He served on the Supreme Court from 1938 until his retirement in 1957.
3. Reed is the last Supreme Court justice not to graduate from law school.
Reed attended, but did not graduate from, both UVA Law and Columbia Law. He practiced law at a time when you did not need a law degree. Instead, lawyers of his time could “read the law.” Reading the law allowed a prospective lawyer to apprentice with a more-experienced lawyer or judge. In many instances a prospective lawyer need not apprentice with anyone at all—President Abraham Lincoln closely studied the leading legal treaties of his day before setting out his own shingle.[4]
Honestly, I am glad the American Bar Association has largely gotten rid of the practice of reading the law. After all, who would want to miss out on the joys of law school?[5]
4. Reed’s Supreme Court replacement was a disaster.
This entry is off-topic, but I got sucked into a Wikipedia rabbit hole, and I refuse to let this research go to waste. In 1957, Reed retired from the Supreme Court, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Charles Evans Whittaker of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals as his replacement. Whittaker’s time on the Court was an unmitigated disaster. He reportedly was an “extremely weak, vacillating justice" and often sided with whoever “made the last, but not necessarily the best, argument."[6] He seemed to have an inferiority complex, despite being one of the nine most powerful lawyers in the country. He lasted five years on the court before suffering a nervous breakdown during Baker v. Carr and resigning.[7]
5. Reed was the final holdout in Brown v. Board of Education.
As our 1L ConLaw professors were sure to mention, the decision in Brown v. Board of Education was unanimous.[8] This was by design, as Chief Justice Earl Warren knew overturning segregation would be extremely controversial. The only person standing between Chief Justice Warren and a unanimous opinion was Justice Reed. Reed lacked personal commitment to civil rights: he was a member of a whites-only social club, and his home had an all-white racial covenant. He also hailed from the border state of Kentucky. Reed had previously recused himself from the prominent civil rights case Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948.[9]
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Brown. In attendance was future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, who had argued Brown before the Court. Chief Justice Warren read the Court’s opinion, ending with the phrase “so say we all,” indicating the unanimity of the Court’s opinion. Reed and Marshall locked eyes, “because [Reed] wanted to see my reaction when I realized he hadn’t dissented,” Marshall would later say. Both men exchanged nods, and then Reed began to cry.
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tqy7zz@virginia.edu
[1] Y’all need some milk.
[2] http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=1984.
[3] https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations
1789present.htm.
[4] Frederick James Allen, The Law as a Vocation, Harvard University (1919).
[5] Me.
[6] Howard Ball. Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior (2006).
[7] 369 U.S. 186 (1962).
[8] 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
[9] 334 U.S. 1 (1948) (holding that racially restrictive housing covenants are legally unenforceable).