ABSTRACT
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was a justice of the Supreme Court only a mere five and one-half years, where he wrote only a few important opinions that only confirmed his preeminence. Cardozo attended Columbia College, where he was influenced by his professor of philosophy, Nicholas Murray Butler, who later became president of Columbia. Cardozo's reflections on the practice of judging and of judicial writing clearly, convincingly demonstrate his keen philosophic mind and his mastery of Aristotle's treatises on logic, rhetoric and poetics, no less than those on ethics, politics, and metaphysics. As many of his judicial opinions show, Cardozo applied the lessons he had learned. Cardozo's concept of fundamental rights is also very important because it makes possible the recognition of rights that are not spelled out in the Bill of Rights. Cardozo joined the Zionist organization and he was a member of the American Jewish Committee and held important positions in the organization.
