Editing Robert H. Jackson (section)

===Feud with Hugo Black===
Justices Jackson and [[Hugo Black]] had profound professional and personal disagreements dating back to October 1941, the first term during which they served together on the Supreme Court. According to [[Dennis J. Hutchinson|Dennis Hutchinson]], editor of ''[[The Supreme Court Review]]'', Jackson objected to Black's practice of importing his personal preferences into his jurisprudence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hutchinson |first=Dennis J. |date=1989 |title=The Black-Jackson Feud |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/scr.1988.3109625 |journal=The Supreme Court Review |language=en |volume=1988 |pages=203–243 |doi=10.1086/scr.1988.3109625 |issn=0081-9557}}</ref> Hutchinson quotes Jackson as having remarked, "With few exceptions, we all knew which side of a case Black would vote on when he read the names of the parties."<ref>Id. at 230.</ref> While Hutchinson points out that Jackson objected to Black's style of jurisprudence in such cases as ''[[Minersville School Dist. v. Gobitis|Minersville v. Gobitis]]'' (1940) and ''United States v. Bethlehem Steel'' (1942), Black's involvement in the ''Jewell Ridge'' case struck Jackson as especially injudicious.

In ''[[Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. v. Mine Workers]]'' (1945), the Supreme Court faced the issue of whether to grant the coal company's petition for a rehearing, on the grounds that the victorious miners were, in a previous matter, represented by Crampton P. Harris, who was Justice Black's former law partner and personal lawyer. Despite this apparent conflict of interest, Black lobbied the Court for a [[per curiam]] denial of the petition. Justice Jackson objected, with the result that Jackson filed a concurrence disassociating himself from the ruling and, by implication, criticizing Black for not addressing the conflict of interest. Jackson also strongly objected to Black's judicial conduct in ''Jewell Ridge'' for another reason. As Jackson later alleged, while Justice Murphy was preparing his opinion, Black urged that the Court hand down its decision without waiting for the opinion and dissent. In Jackson's eyes, the "...only apparent reason behind this proposal was to announce the decision in time to influence the contract negotiations during the coal strike" between the coal company and the miners, which were taking place at the time.<ref>Id. at 208.</ref>

Jackson probably regarded Black's conduct as unbecoming of a Supreme Court Justice in another related matter. On April 3, 1945, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare held a dinner, at which it honored Justice Black as the 1945 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award. [[Fred M. Vinson]] spoke at the dinner. While Jackson declined an invitation to the event, citing a conflict arising out of the fact that a number of leading sponsors of the dinner were then litigants before the Supreme Court, Black attended the dinner and received his award. Crampton Harris, counsel in two pending cases, ''Jewell Ridge'' and ''CIO v. McAdory'' (1945), was one of the sponsors.<ref>Id. at 236–37</ref>

Jackson later took these grievances public in two cables from Nuremberg. Jackson had informally been promised the Chief Justiceship by Roosevelt; however, the seat came open while Jackson was in Germany, and Roosevelt was dead. President [[Harry S. Truman]] was faced with two factions, one recommending Jackson for the seat, and the other advocating for [[Hugo Black]]. In an attempt to avoid controversy, Truman appointed Vinson. Jackson blamed machinations by Black for his being passed over for the seat, and publicly exposed some of Black's controversial behavior and feuding within the Court. The controversy was heavily covered in the press, casting the [[New Deal]] Court in a negative light, and had the effect of tarnishing Jackson's reputation in the years that followed.

On June 8, 1946, Jackson sent a cable to President Truman. Jackson's cable to Truman began with an insincere offer of congratulations to the President for his appointment of Vinson. However, the cable then quickly addressed the rumor, which Jackson had gotten wind of in Nuremberg, according to which Truman had appointed Fred Vinson, in part, to avert a resignation on the part of Justice Black. Rumors had been circulating in Washington that Black would resign in the event that Truman chose Jackson as [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] Stone's successor. "I would be loath to believe that you would concede to any man a veto over court appointments."<ref>Id. at 220.</ref> Jackson closed his cable by stating that he could not continue his service as an Associate Justice under Vinson if an associate "had something on [him]", which would disqualify him from serving, or if he, Truman, regarded Jackson's opinion in the ''Jewell Ridge'' case as a "gratuitous insult" to Justice Black.<ref name="ReferenceA">''Dennis v. United States''</ref>

After receiving a response from Truman in which he denied having given consideration to, or having even heard of, the rumor of Black's threatened resignation, Jackson rashly fired off a second cable to [[United States Congress|Congress]], on June 10. This cable stated Jackson's reasons for his belief that Justice Black faced a conflict of interest in ''Jewell Ridge'', from which he wrongfully, at least, in Jackson's eyes, did not [[Judicial disqualification|recuse himself]], and ended with Jackson's threat that if such a practice "is ever repeated while I am on the bench, I will make my ''Jewell Ridge'' opinion look like a letter of recommendation by comparison."<ref>Id. at 221.</ref>