BURTON, HAROLD H.

born June 22, 1888, Jamaica Plain, Mass., U.S. died Oct. 28, 1964, Washington, D.C. in full Harold Hitz Burton associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (194558). Burton practiced law in Cleveland until his election to the Ohio state legislature in 1929. In 1935 he was elected on a reform platform to the first of his three terms as mayor of Cleveland, and in 1940 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. A liberal Republican, he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1945 by President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat but long-time friend. Burton was a strict constructionist and sometimes opposed the executive on economic and commerce issues. Although he generally voted with the liberal majority on questions of civil rights in the 1950s, he dissented more and more frequently on other issues. He retired from the court in 1958 owing to poor health.