Daily Archives: June 4, 2009

First Hispanic SC Justice

Was Benjamin N. Cardozo who succeeded Oliver Wendell Holmes on the court.

Benjamin_Cardozo

Cardozo was an associate justice from 1932 until his death in 1938. He was appointed by Herbert Hoover.

Benjamin Cardozo was born into a community of persecuted Spanish and Portuguese Jews established in New Amsterdam in 1654. Governor Peter Stuyvesant attempted to expel them but was overruled by the Dutch West India Company. Cardozo’s family produced distinguished patriots including Emma Lazarus, whose words once adorned the Statue of Liberty. (my emphasis)

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