MINTON, SHERMAN

born Oct. 20, 1890, near Georgetown, Ind., U.S. died April 9, 1965, New Albany, Ind. associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (194956). While at Yale Law School, Minton helped to organize the university's legal aid society. His law practice in New Albany in Indiana was interrupted by his service in World War I, and after his return home he joined a law firm in the same town. His political career began with his appointment in 1933 as counsel to the Indiana Public Service Commission, in which capacity he was responsible for reducing the state's utility rates. Minton was a champion of New Deal programs in the U.S. Senate (193541) and as a special assistant to Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1941 he was appointed to the seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, on which he served until named to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1949. The previous year he had served on a three-member board that investigated a coal strike called by mine-union leader John L. Lewis, who had violated an injunction and was subsequently fined for contempt. On the court, Minton frequently demonstrated conservative points of view, consistently upholding actions taken by the federal government in cases involving free-speech claims or cases involving alleged subversives. In an important opinion in United States v. Rabinowitz (1950) Minton reversed a lower-court ruling that search warrants must be procured when practicable, declaring that the 4th Amendment prohibited only unreasonable searches. He retired from the court in 1956 for reasons of health.