Known as the “people’s attorney,” Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) gained a reputation as a formidable defender and advocate for everyday Americans through his many crusading cases, which included exposing corruption in the Ballinger-Pinchot Affair, fighting railroad trusts, and defending laws restricting women’s working hours. In 1916, President Wilson appointed him to the United States Supreme Court to considerable controversy over his perceived anti-business stance, and to a lesser extent, his Jewish ancestry. However, Progressives slowly convinced Democrats of his suitability, and Brandeis was sworn in to the Court in June of 1916. As one newspaper in his native Kentucky wrote, “Brandeis has the temperament of the crusader rather than of the judge…We are not worried over that. A little adaptability is only a side line with a man of Louis Brandeis' brilliant mentality and boundless capacity.” Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.