Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
In office June 1, 1951 – August 18, 1961
Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
In office September 1, 1948 – June 1, 1951
Preceded by
Office established
Succeeded by
Thomas Walter Swan
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
In office December 20, 1924 – June 1, 1951
Appointed by
Calvin Coolidge
Preceded by
Julius Marshuetz Mayer
Succeeded by
Harold Medina
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office April 26, 1909 – December 29, 1924
Appointed by
William Howard Taft
Preceded by
Seat established by 35 Stat. 685
Succeeded by
Thomas D. Thacher
Personal details
Born
Billings Learned Hand
(1872-01-27)January 27, 1872 Albany, New York, U.S.
Died
August 18, 1961(1961-08-18) (aged 89) New York City, U.S.
Political party
Democratic (before 1900)
Republican (1900–1912)
Progressive (1912–1916)
Spouse
Frances Amelia Fincke
(m. 1902)
Children
3
Parent
Samuel Hand (father)
Relatives
Richard Jordan (grandson)
Augustus Noble Hand (cousin)
Education
Harvard University (AB, AM, LLB)
Billings Learned Hand (/ˈlɜːrnɪd/LURN-id; January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961) was an American jurist, lawyer, and judicial philosopher. He served as a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1909 to 1924 and as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1924 to 1951.
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Hand majored in philosophy at Harvard College and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. After a relatively undistinguished career as a lawyer in Albany and New York City, he was appointed at the age of 37 as a Manhattan federal district judge in 1909. The profession suited his detached and open-minded temperament, and his decisions soon won him a reputation for craftsmanship and authority. Between 1909 and 1914, under the influence of Herbert Croly's social theories, Hand supported New Nationalism. He ran unsuccessfully as the Progressive Party's candidate for chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1913, but withdrew from active politics shortly afterwards. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge elevated Hand to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which he went on to lead as the senior circuit judge (later retitled chief judge) from 1939 until his semi-retirement in 1951. Scholars have recognized the Second Circuit under Hand as one of the finest appeals courts in American history. Friends and admirers often lobbied for Hand's promotion to the Supreme Court, but circumstances and his political past conspired against his appointment.
Hand possessed a gift for the English language, and his writings are admired as legal literature.[1] He rose to fame outside the legal profession in 1944 during World War II after giving a short address in Central Park that struck a popular chord in its appeal for tolerance. During a period when a hysterical fear of subversion divided the nation, Hand was viewed as a liberal defender of civil liberties. A collection of Hand's papers and addresses, published in 1952 as The Spirit of Liberty, sold well and won him new admirers. Even after he criticized the civil-rights activism of the Warren Court, Hand retained his popularity.
Hand is also remembered as a pioneer of modern approaches to statutory interpretation. His decisions in specialist fields—such as patents, torts, admiralty law, and antitrust law—set lasting standards for craftsmanship and clarity. On constitutional matters, he was both a political progressive and an advocate of judicial restraint. He believed in the protection of free speech and in bold legislation to address social and economic problems. He argued that the United States Constitution does not empower courts to overrule the legislation of elected bodies, except in extreme circumstances. Instead, he advocated the "combination of toleration and imagination that to me is the epitome of all good government".[2] As of 2004,[update] Hand had been quoted more often by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court of the United States than any other lower-court judge.[3]
^Schick 1970, pp. 188–89
^Dworkin 1996, p. 342. Quoted from Hand's 1958 Holmes Lectures.
Billings LearnedHand (/ˈlɜːrnɪd/ LURN-id; January 27, 1872 – August 18, 1961) was an American jurist, lawyer, and judicial philosopher. He served as a...
calculus of negligence, also known as the Hand rule, Hand formula, or BPL formula, is a term coined by Judge LearnedHand which describes a process for determining...
from Boston, Massachusetts, and Constance (née Hand) from New York. His maternal grandfather was LearnedHand, judge of the United States Court of Appeals...
famed judge LearnedHand, who served on both courts with his cousin during most of Augustus Hand's tenure. Born in Elizabethtown, New York, Hand received...
Marshall, and Sonia Sotomayor. Judge LearnedHand served on the court from 1924 to 1961, as did his cousin, Augustus Noble Hand, from 1927 until 1953. Judge Henry...
Mary Ann Glendon (born October 7, 1938) is the LearnedHand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a former United States Ambassador to the Holy See...
nevertheless equivalent to the claimed invention. In the United States, Judge LearnedHand has described its purpose as being "to temper unsparing logic and prevent...
The district has had several prominent judges on its bench, including LearnedHand, Michael Mukasey, and Sonia Sotomayor, and many of the U.S. attorneys...
group would make acquaintances with distinguished jurists LearnedHand, Augustus Noble Hand, Julian Mack, and Charles Culp Burlingham. After Buckner requested...
is learned by consciously challenging any negative self talk. Learned optimism was defined by Martin Seligman and published in his 1990 book, Learned Optimism...
(born September 26, 1962) is an American legal scholar. He serves as the LearnedHand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he has written extensively...
"No Lessons Learned" is the series finale of the American television sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm. It is the tenth episode of the twelfth season and the...
Dworkin then clerked for Judge LearnedHand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Hand would later call Dworkin "the law...
opinion, Vinson endorsed the balancing approach used by Judge Hand: Chief Judge LearnedHand ... interpreted the [clear and present danger] phrase as follows:...
Normandy. He returned home, attended Harvard Law School, and clerked for LearnedHand and Felix Frankfurter before beginning his legal career at Ropes & Gray...
(biography of LearnedHand, Swan's fellow judge on the Second Circuit, contains extensive discussion of Swan) Marcia Nelson, The Remarkable Hands: An Affectionate...
researching and writing his influential 818-page biography of Judge LearnedHand, titled LearnedHand: The Man and the Judge. Gunther's biography earned him numerous...
The case was heard on 18 May 1939, before the judges LearnedHand, his cousin Augustus N. Hand and Charles Edward Clark. The judges went into conference...
Theodore Roosevelt, Adolph Berle, as well as his close friends Judge LearnedHand and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. His 1909 book The Promise...
though he expressed his opinions privately to friends such as Judge LearnedHand. In 1912 Frankfurter supported the Bull Moose campaign to return Roosevelt...