Attorney General: Robert Houghwout Jackson

Robert Houghwout Jackson was born in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, on February 13, 1892. He was admitted to the bar in 1913. He was president of the Western New York Federation of Bar Associations from 1928 to 1930, a member of the New York State Commission to Investigate the Administration of Justice, a member of the board of directors of the New York Emergency Script Corporation, in 1933, and chairman of the National Conference of Bar Association Delegates from 1933 to 1934. He was General Counsel for the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1934. His service with the Department of Justice included appointments as an Assistant Attorney General of the Tax Division on February 26, 1936, Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division on January 21, 1937, and Solicitor General of the United States on March 4, 1938. On January 18, 1940, President Roosevelt appointed Jackson Attorney General of the United States. He was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on July 11, 1941, also by Roosevelt. At the close of World War II in 1945, President Truman appointed Jackson as United States representative in meetings with the "Big Three" powers, England, Russia, and France, to negotiate agreement for the international trials of German criminals. Justice Jackson was chief counsel of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. He was an author, lecturer, and a trustee of George Washington University and Union College. He died on October 9, 1954.