In September 1945, eighty years ago, Justice Robert H. Jackson was four-plus months into serving, by appointment of President Truman, as U.S. Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals in the European Theater.
At that time, Robert Jackson was still a justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S., but he very much was not of the Court. In springtime 1945, he had juggled his new “Nazi prosecution” job and his Supreme Court work. Then during the Court’s summer recess, he did the new job full time, in Europe and the United Kingdom, including negotiating creation of the world’s first international criminal court.
In September 1945, Justice Jackson returned briefly to Washington. He worked in his Supreme Court chambers and had many meetings, including with President Truman at the White House.
Then Jackson again left Washington, and soon he was in Nuremberg. He spent the next year there, prosecuting the arch-criminal Nazis. He was away without leave from the Supreme Court, which for the next term functioned without him.
On September 10, 2025, I gave online a Supreme Court Historical Society lecture, “Away Without Leave but Back in Washington, Briefly: Nazi Prosecutor Justice Robert H. Jackson on the Road to Nuremberg, September 1945,” about these significant events.
Here is the link to the lecture video:
Thanks to SCHS, and enjoy!
