ABSTRACT
Benjamin Cardozo of New York served as an associate justice on the US Supreme Court for the brief span 1932-1938. He had suffered a heart attack before he was appointed to the Court, and his tenure was cut short by his untimely death in the summer preceeding the Court's 1938-1939 term. Cardozo's entry into judicial politics was as notable as the impact he made throughout his legal career. Justice Cardozo's service on the Court was marked by a penchant for opinion writing, at which Cardozo flourished. He had an uncanny ability to turn dense legal concepts into symbolic, meaningful prose. He relished the chance to write opinions for the Court, but was often shielded from the task by Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes, who worried about Cardozo's lingering health problems. Benjamin Cardozo's thoughtful and deliberative opinions and his extensive writing on legal philosophy have garnered him a place in history as one of America's greatest jurists.
