Cardozo

by Kaufman

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, unarguably one of the most outstanding judges of the twentieth century, is a man whose name remains prominent and whose contributions to the law remain relevant. This first complete biography of the longtime member and chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States during the turbulent years of the New Deal is a monumental achievement by a distinguished interpreter of constitutional law.

Cardozo was a progressive judge who understood and defended the proposition that judge-made law must be adapted to modern conditions. He also preached and practiced the doctrine that respect for precedent, history, and all branches of government limited what a judge could and should do. Thus, he did not modernize law at every opportunity.

In this book, Andrew Kaufman interweaves the personal and professional lives of this remarkable man to yield a multidimensional whole. Cardozo’s family ties to the Jewish community were a particularly significant factor in shaping his life, as was his father’s scandalous career―and ultimate disgrace―as a lawyer and judge. Kaufman concentrates, however, on Cardozo’s own distinguished career, including twenty-three years in private practice as a tough-minded and skillful lawyer and his classic lectures and writings on the judicial process. From this biography emerges an estimable figure holding to concepts of duty and responsibility, but a person not without frailties and prejudice.

Genres: Law, Biography, Nonfiction

747 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Kaufman's monumental academic biography is both a labor of love and a profound achievement. Those readers who have found this book tedious or repetitive must blame its subject--a pompous, elitist jerk who lived with one of his sisters for most of his life, gave three somewhat interesting lectures on jurisprudence, and updated NY law in a handful of common law contexts during his time on that state's Court of Appeals--rather than its author. To paraphrase a question Richard Posner asked about Gerald Gunther, the biographer of Judge Learned Hand: What would Kaufman, himself a talented lawyer and law professor, have accomplished if he hadn't spent forty years writing this massive tome? Nevertheless, this book is light years ahead of Gunther's excellent Hand biography in terms of scholarship; Kaufman has a thorough understanding of what he's writing about, and his decision to confine Cardozo's strange, meek, uninteresting, and vaguely creepy domestic life (he was obsessed with Edward VIII's abdication and loved playing the piano alongside his sister Nellie!) to a handful of chapters and address his judicial work in topical fashion was the appropriate way to proceed (although I'm sure that casual readers seeking a chronological narrative, as Gunther provides in the Hand book, will be sorely disappointed). The breadth of research on display here is impressive, and the treatment of Cardozo's unpublished opinions and letters to colleagues and friends seems to me an excellent way--if such information is available--to determine how much of a judge's published corpus was motivated by pragmatic considerations (in Cardozo's case, most of it was, although he always gave lip service to his vague "four factors" of sociology, history, custom, and philosophy).

[RYD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benjamin Cardozo was an influential judge first on New York's highest court, and then as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court during the New Deal. I enjoyed the biographical segments of this book, but found dragging some of the analysis of his legal opinions. Part of the problem was author Andrew Kaufman's focus on Cardozo's decisions in common law cases, a genre that is far less compelling to me than criminal or constitutional law, where so much more seems at stake.

Cardozo was a judge at a time when the role of government was changing in society, and he was one of those who was comfortable with that change. One unpublished opinion of his quoted in the book that I highlighted:

"[He acknowledged that his interpretation] may be inconsistent with things that men said in 1787 when expounding to patriots the newly written constitution. They did not see the changes in the relation between states and nation or in the play of social forces that lay hidden in the womb of time. It may be inconsistent with things that they believed or took for granted. Their beliefs to be significant must be adjusted to the world they knew. It is not in my judgment inconsistent with what they would say today, nor with what today they would believe, if they were called upon to interpret 'in the light of our whole experience' the constitution that they framed for the needs of an expanding future."

As Kaufman wrote about the opinion: "This was a forceful and candid justification for reinterpreting constitutional provisions in light of their purposes and in light of changing conditions in society. No justice of the Supreme Court had ever written anything like it in an opinion. It presaged the modern debate about the reinterpretation of constitutional provisions in light of changing conditions in society."

[TENN2ARIZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Kaufman's well-researched book about Justice Cardozo is a very good read, especially if you're into appellate decision-making and constitutional law. It also notes the critical but necessary nuanced modification of the law, unlike the current court's radical departure from stare decisis. We could use another Cardozo on the court these days.

[Brent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading this more than 10 years ago on a law professor's recommendation--I don't think I finished it. That professor had done an interesting biography of Justice Byron White. Kaufman's book is thorough, but I lost interest upon reaching its detailed analysis of Cardozo's legal reasoning. I think I skipped to the end.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won't lie, I didn't make it that far in this book. Although Cardozo was one of the best writers to grace the bench, Kaufman's writing is stiff and vague and lacks narrative direction.

Maybe it gets a lot better later in the text, but I doubt it.