GOLDBERG, ARTHUR JOSEPH
Arthur Joseph Goldberg served as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 to 1965. A dis-
tinguished LABOR LAW attorney, Goldberg also
served as secretary of labor in the administra-
tion of President JOHN F. KENNEDY from 1961
until his judicial appointment and as ambassa-
dor to the UNITED NATIONS from 1965 to 1968
during the administration of President LYNDON
B. JOHNSON. Johnson persuaded a reluctant
Goldberg to resign from the Supreme Court to
accept the U.N. assignment.
Goldberg was born August 8, 1908, in
Chicago, to Russian immigrants. He graduated
from Northwestern University Law School in
1929 and entered the field of labor law in
Chicago. Goldberg gained national attention in
1939 as counsel to the Chicago Newspaper Guild
during a strike.He served in the Office of Strate-
gic Services during WORLD WAR II and then
returned to his labor practice in 1944.
In 1948 he became general counsel for the
United Steelworkers of America, a position he
held until 1961. The steelworkers union was an
important union during a time when U.S. heavy
industry was thriving. Strikes or the threat of
strikes in the steel industry had national reper-
cussions. Goldberg proved adept in his role as
general counsel, skillfully negotiating strike set-
tlements, consolidating gains through COLLEC-
TIVE BARGAINING, and helping with public
relations.
From 1948 to 1955, Goldberg also was
general counsel for the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO), which contained most
nontrade unions, such as those controlling man-
ufacturing and mining jobs. The CIO had been
created when the TRADE UNION members of the
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL)
showed no interest in organizing these indus-
tries. There was a great deal of friction between
the CIO and the AFL, yet the leadership of both
organizations realized that a unified labor
movement was a necessity. Goldberg was a prin-
cipal architect of the 1955 merger of the CIO
and AFL into the AFL-CIO. He then served as a
special counsel to the AFL-CIO’s industrial
union department from 1955 to 1961.
In 1961 President Kennedy appointed Gold-
berg secretary of labor. During the less than two
years that Goldberg held this office, he saw con-
gressional approval of an increase in the MINI-
MUM WAGE, and the reorganization of the Office
of Manpower Administration (now the Employ-
ment and Training Administration). When Jus-
tice FELIX FRANKFURTER retired from the
Supreme Court in 1962, Kennedy appointed
Goldberg to the “Jewish seat.” The so-called Jew-
ish seat began with the 1939 appointment of
Felix Frankfurter, who was Jewish, to succeed
Justice BENJAMIN CARDOZO, also Jewish. It was
assumed that for political reasons, Democratic
presidents would appoint a Jewish person to
that vacancy. This tradition ended with the
appointment of ABE FORTAS.
The appointment of the liberal Goldberg,
replacing the conservative Frankfurter, turned a
four-justice liberal minority on the Court into a
five-justice liberal majority, which was led by
104 GOING PUBLIC
WEST’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 2nd Edition
