Felix Frankfurter, (born Nov. 15, 1882, Vienna, Austria-Hungary—died Feb. 22, 1965, Washington, D.C., U.S.), Austrian-born U.S. jurist and public official. Immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 12, he was educated at the City College of New York and Harvard Law School, where he later taught (1914–39). He served as secretary of war (1911–13) under Pres. William H. Taft. He advised Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference (1919) and counseled Franklin Roosevelt on New Deal legislation (1933–39). He promoted Zionism in the U.S. and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union; his friend Louis Brandeis secretly encouraged his attacks on the Sacco-Vanzetti conviction. In 1939 he was appointed by Roosevelt to the Supreme Court of the United States, on which he served until 1962. He became a leading exponent of judicial restraint, holding that judges should adhere closely to precedent and largely disregard their personal views; his opinions evince a concern with the integrity of government, sometimes at the expense of individual liberties.
