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24 N.Y.U. L. Q. Rev. 661 (1949)
Mr. Justice Rutledge's Philosophy of Civil Rights

handle is hein.journals/nylr24 and id is 663 raw text is: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
LAW QUARTERLY REVIEW
VOLUME XXIV               OCTOBER, 1949                 NUflER 4
MR. JUSTICE RUTLEDGE'S PHILOSOPHY OF
CIVIL RIGHTS
LESTER E. MOSHER
Liberty, n. One of Imagination's most precious possessions.-
BIERCE, The Devil's Dictionary
IN JANuAiY, 1943, Wiley B. Rutledge, at the age of 48 years,
was appointed to the highest tribunal of this nation. The late
Justice Rutledge began his career in 1923 as a law teacher at the
University of Colorado from which he had received his law degree.
He achieved distinction as professor of law and dean of the Univer-
sity of Iowa Law School in 1930, at the age of 36. Rutledge entered
upon his judicial career in 1939 as an Associate Justice of the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and
from there he moved to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Comparatively little has been said or written about Justice
Rutledge and his work.' Kentucky-born, son of a Baptist preacher,
he has been described as a liberal in the tradition of the I&d-
west.'2 He was regarded as a humanist and a man with great
social sympathy, possessing more interest in human welfare than
facts of law. As a law teacher, Dean Rutledge always sought to
demonstrate to his students the human side of any legal matter.
One of his favorite teachings was: What good is law unless it
serves human needs?113 This pragmatic attitude reflects his juristic
Lester E. Mosher is a member of the New York Bar and a law assistant to
the Justices of the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court in the Second Judicial
Department.
I For a brief study of Justice Rutledge's personal background, judicial opinions
and other writings while he was a member of the U. S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia, see Forrester, Mr. Justice Rufledge-A New Factor, 17
Tui.Am L. RFEv. 511 (1943). There appears to be no published review of the work
of ths jurist since his appointment to the Supreme Court.
2 Time, June 27, 1949, p. 8, col. 2. N. Y. Herald Tribune ed., Sept. 12,
1949, p. 10, col. 3. The death of Justice Wiley B. Rutledge deprives the Supreme
Court of a trained jurist and a forthright liberal... Y
3 N. Y. Times, Sept. 11, 1949, p. 92, col. 5; Powell, Behind the Split in the

Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review

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