Benjamin Cardozo | |
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Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
In office March 2, 1932 – July 9, 1938 |
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Nominated by | Herbert Hoover |
Preceded by | Oliver Holmes |
Succeeded by | Felix Frankfurter |
Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals | |
In office January 1, 1927 – March 7, 1932 |
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Preceded by | Frank Hiscock |
Succeeded by | Cuthbert Pound |
Personal details | |
Born |
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo May 24, 1870 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Died | July 9, 1938 Port Chester, New York, U.S. |
(aged 68)
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Columbia University (BA, MA) |
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (May 24, 1870 – July 9, 1938) was an American jurist who served on the New York Court of Appeals and later as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Cardozo is remembered for his significant influence on the development of American common law in the 20th century, in addition to his philosophy and vivid prose style. Cardozo served on the Supreme Court six years, from 1932 until his death in 1938. Many of his landmark decisions were delivered during his eighteen-year tenure on the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court of that state.
Cardozo was born in 1870 in New York City, the son of Rebecca Washington (née Nathan) and Albert Jacob Cardozo. Both Cardozo's maternal grandparents, Sara Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan, and his paternal grandparents, Ellen Hart and Michael H. Cardozo, were Western Sephardim of the Portuguese Jewish community, affiliated with Manhattan's Congregation Shearith Israel; their families emigrated from London, England before the American Revolution.
The family were descended from Jewish-origin New Christian conversos who left the Iberian Peninsula for Holland during the Inquisition, after which they returned to Judaism. Cardozo family tradition held that their marrano (New Christians who maintained crypto-Jewish practices in secrecy) ancestors were from Portugal, although Cardozo's ancestry has not been firmly traced to Portugal. However, "Cardozo" (archaic spelling of Cardoso), "Seixas" and "Mendes" are the Portuguese, rather than Spanish, spelling of those common Iberian surnames.