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Home » Articles » Topic » Hugo Black. Written by Richard L. Pacelle Jr. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in Black is is widely considered to be one of the most influential justices of his time.

Black supreme court justice

Black was a constitutional absolutist on First Amendment issues. Hugo Lafayette Black — served on the U. Supreme Court for 34 years and is widely considered to be one of the most influential justices of his time, even though his background and unusual path to the Court might have presaged a far more modest impact. The son of a store owner of modest means, Hugo Black graduated from the University of Alabama and then served as a captain in the army during World War I.

After the war, he was a police court judge in rural Alabama before being elected to the U. Senate in a landslide in In the Senate, he was a strong supporter of President Franklin D. Nevertheless, Senator Black initially supported the plan. When Van Devanter, the first in a string of resignations, left the Court, Roosevelt had a chance to change the composition of the Court, and Black was his first appointee.

Some have argued that Roosevelt nominated Black to fulfill a particular agenda: to undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court in the wake of his battles with it.