Jackson, Robert Houghwout (1892-1954), an American lawyer and judge, served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1941 until his death on Oct. 9, 1954. Jackson became known for his defenses of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and for his prosecutions of Nazi leaders following World War II (1939-1945).
Jackson was born on Feb. 13, 1892, in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania. He spent only one year in law school but began to practice law in New York at age 21.
Jackson held a number of positions in the U.S. government. As solicitor general in 1938 and 1939, he defended the constitutionality of such New Deal laws as the Social Security Act (see New Deal). As attorney general in 1940 and 1941, he advised Roosevelt on legal matters related to the build-up of military forces and assistance to the British prior to U.S. entry into World War II. As a Supreme Court justice, Jackson was known as a fine writer and an independent thinker. He defended individual freedoms and argued that judges should try to keep their judgments free from personal opinion.
In the summer of 1945, Jackson took leave from the Supreme Court to help design an international court to try captured Nazi leaders. Jackson served as chief U.S. prosecutor before that court in Nuremberg, Germany, during 1945 and 1946. His opening and closing arguments at Nuremberg are considered definitive statements of the crimes of the Nazi regime.
