Black, Hugo

Black, Hugo (La Fayette)

(born Feb. 27, 1886, Clay county, Ala., U.S.—died Sept. 25, 1971, Bethesda, Md.) U.S. Supreme Court justice (1937–71). After practicing law in Alabama from 1906, he served in the U.S. Senate (1927–37), where he was a strong supporter of the New Deal. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he helped reverse earlier court decisions against New Deal legislation. In the 1960s he was prominent in the liberal majority that struck down mandatory school prayer and guaranteed the availability of legal counsel to suspected criminals. He became best known for his absolutist belief in the Bill of Rights as a guarantee of civil liberties. His last major opinion supported the right of the New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers (1971).

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Black, Hugo (LaFayette) (1886–1971) Supreme Court justice; born in Harlan, Ala. As a senator from Alabama (Dem.; 1927–37) he supported the policies of President Franklin Roosevelt, who appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Soon after he took his seat, it was revealed that he had once belonged to the Ku Klux Klan; he explained it as a youthful indiscretion and went on to serve one of the longest terms (1937–71). He was noted for holding "absolutely" to the Constitution, especially to the rights set forth in the First Amendment.