ABSTRACT
Learned Hand was the longest-serving federal judge in the history of the United States and the most prominent judge who never sat on the US Supreme Court. He was responsible for writing a number of landmark opinions in the field of civil liberties. Hand received the gold key of Phi Beta Kappa and served as the class orator when he graduated in 1893 summa cum laude. Hand, as a young lawyer, wrote repeated articles stating that it was improper for the Court to invalidate the will of the people because a law might interfere with the goals of big business. Hand probably is most revered for his opinions in free speech cases, especially as the right pertains to the concept of incitement. At the end of Hand's career, the American public started to have a regard for Hand similar to that which the legal community had held him in for years.
