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Reviews
GUS J. SOLOMON: LIBERAL POLITICS, JEWS, AND THE FEDERAL COURTS
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by Harry H. Stein
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| Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, 2006. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 282 pages. $22.00 paper. |
| Harry Stein has crafted the best judicial biography of a federal district court judge of this century. This book is deeply researched, historiographically sophisticated, closely argued, and masterfully written. It sets a high mark for all historians to follow. |
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Gus Solomon was a liberal lawyer in Portland who scratched out a living, worked faithfully to advance Jews and Jewish culture, participated in Democratic Party politics, and supported liberal causes from the 1930s until his death in 1987. His parents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia who settled in South Portland's Jewish neighborhood. After graduating from Reed College, Solomon attended Columbia University Law School during its heyday of legal realism. In 1927, he transferred to Stanford Law School, a traditional law school with few Jews but little discrimination against Jews. Solomon graduated in 1929 and became a sole practitioner in Portland because he was unable to land a job in Portland law firms, which refused to hire Jews. Solomon gained experience handling a wide variety of civil cases, developed a distaste for insurance companies, became enamored of public electrical power cooperatives, worked for organized labor, and emerged a centrist liberal. He moved into ACLU activism in 1934, the Democratic Party in 1937, and representation of Japanese Americans after World War II. By 1949, his private practice was thriving and he was heavily involved with Americans for Democratic Action. |
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Solomon won appointment to the federal bench during the Truman administration. As a federal district court judge, Solomon was a scholar of the law and a brilliant court manager. He pioneered in pre-trial procedures, increased case flow efficiency, and played "a robust judicial hand" (p. 147). Solomon emphasized doing the "sensible thing" and administering "practical justice" (p. 156, 157). He frequently sat in other jurisdictions and on the appellate bench. On the appellate bench, he published 111 opinions. On the trial bench, he relished his reputation for forcing counsel to be prepared by ridiculing them if ill-prepared. |
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Solomon was a supporter of African Americans, American Indians, and Jews on and off the bench. He appointed African Americans to positions in the court. He authored important case law that validated treaty provisions guaranteeing fishing and hunting rights for Indian tribes. Another passion was working hard for Jews, which he did both as part of organizations and in-person, often placing Jewish attorneys with Portland law firms. He worked tirelessly for the admission of Jews to private clubs and slowly won admissions, one by one. Solomon was a judge who worked seven days a week and expected the same of others. He earned the title "fastest gavel in the West" (p. 143). He was a master of his craft and a person few could emulate in work ethic. |
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Most impressively, Stein has combined primary sources; author interviews; oral histories in the Oregon Historical Society's United States District Court Oral History project collection, the Oregon Jewish Museum, and the Truman Library; and a vast array of secondary literature on legal history and the federal courts. The endnotes are as impressive as the biography. Historians, lawyers, and judges should read this book. It is a model biography and Solomon was a model of what a federal judge can be for his profession and his community. |
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| Gordon Morris Bakken
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| California State University, Fullerton |
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