Alexander Mordecai Bickel papers

Alexander Mordecai Bickel, professor in Yale Law School and contributing editor of The New Republic, was a pre-eminent scholarly and popular authority on the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the roles of the several branches of government in shaping public policy. Speaking and writing as teacher, scholar, lawyer, journalist, Democrat, and adviser to government officials, he was in the 1960s and early 1970s an important contributor to national discussion of such legal and political subjects as school desegregation, reapportionment, the Electoral College, the interpretation of the First Amendment, the powers of the President, the significance of the Warren Court, and the meaning of the liberal tradition. These are among the principal events in his personal and professional life:

1924

born in Bucharest, Rumania, to Shlomo and Yetta Bickel.

1939

immigrated with family to New York City, where his father became a journalist in the Yiddish-language press.

1943-1945

served in the U.S Army.

1947

received the B.S. in Social Science from the City College of New York.

1949

received the LL.B. from Harvard Law School,

1949-1950

served as law clerk to Chief Judge Calvert Magruder, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

1950-1951

employed in the Office of the U.S. High Commissioner in Germany.

1951-1952

belonged to the U.S. Observer Delegation to the European Defense Community Conference in Paris.

1952-1953

served as law clerk to Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court.

1953-1954

employed as special assistant to Director Robert R. Bowie, Policy Planning Staff, U.S. State Department.

1954-1956

employed as research associate, Harvard Law School.

1956

appointed associate professor, Yale Law School.

1957

chosen by the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise to write "Responsible Government and the Judiciary, 1910-1930," a segment of its projected Supreme Court history.

1957

published The Unpublished Opinions of Mr. Justice Brandeis.

1959-1960

lived in Washington, D.C., during most of sabbatical year.

1959

married Josephine Ann (Joanne) Napolino.

1960

appointed professor, Yale Law School.

1960

first child born, Francesca Ann.

1962

second child born, Claudia Rose.

1963

published The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics.

1965

published Politics and the Warren Court.

1966

appointed Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History in Yale Law School and Yale University.

1966

taught in summer session, Stanford Law School.

1967

appointed consultant to the Subcommittee on the Separation of Powers, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

1968

served on the Democratic Party's Commission on the Democratic Selection of Presidential Nominees (Hughes Commission).

1968

published The New Age of Political Reform: The Electoral College, the Convention, and the Party System.

1969

appointed consultant to the Democratic Party's Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection (McGovern Commission).

1969

delivered Holmes Lectures at Harvard Law School.

1970-1974

collaborated with U.S. Representative Richardson Preyer on legislation related to school desegregation.

1970

published The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress

1970

appointed William C. DeVane Professor, Yale University, for a three-year term (1971-1974).

1970-1971

held a fellowship in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavorial Sciences, Palo Alto, California,

1971

published Reform and Continuity: The Electoral College, the Convention, and the Party System, a revision of The New Age of Political Reform.

1971

argued for the defense in New York Times Co. v. United States (the Pentagon papers case).

1971-1973

participated in the Study Group of the Federal Judicial Center on the Caseload of the Supreme Court.

1973

published The Caseload of the Supreme Court: And What, If Anything, to Do About It.

1973 Dec

underwent surgery.

1974 Feb

returned to professional activity.

1974 Jul

appointed Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School.

1974 Jul

suffered relapse.

1974 Oct

completed manuscript of The Morality of Consent.

1974 Nov

died.