Billings Learned Hand was an American jurist who, in almost half a century of distinguished judicial service, acquired an authority never equaled by any other judge of a lower federal court. While working as a lawyer, he ceased using the name "Billings" - calling it "pompous" - and ultimately took on the nickname "B".
Background
Billings Hand was born on January 27, 1872, in Albany, New York, the second and last child of Samuel Hand (1833-1886) and Lydia Hand (née Learned). Hand grew up in comfortable circumstances on Albany's main residential street. The family had an "almost hereditary" attachment to the legal profession and has been described as "the most distinguished legal family in northern New York".
Education
Hand spent two years at a small primary school before transferring at the age of seven to The Albany Academy, which he attended for the next 10 years. He never enjoyed the Academy's uninspired teaching or its narrow curriculum, which focused on Ancient Greek and Latin, with few courses in English, history, science, or modern languages.
After his father's death, he felt more pressure from his mother to excel academically. He finished near the top of his class and was accepted into Harvard College. Hand started at Harvard College in 1889, initially focusing on classical studies and mathematics as advised by his late father. At the end of his sophomore year, however, he changed direction. He embarked on courses in philosophy and economics, studying under the eminent and inspirational philosophers William James, Josiah Royce and George Santayana. He became a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and appeared as a blond-wigged chorus girl in the 1892 student musical. He was also elected president of The Harvard Advocate, a student literary magazine.
In 1909 Billings Hand was appointed a federal district judge in New York, and in 1924 he was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the second circuit (New York, Connecticut, and Vermont), one of his colleagues being his cousin Augustus Noble Hand. From 1939 he served as chief judge. He sat in many cases after his official retirement in 1951.
Because several Supreme Court justices disqualified themselves, Hand’s court rendered the final decision (1945) in a major antitrust suit against the Aluminum Company of America (usually called the Alcoa case). After a trial lasting four years, Hand wrote for the court an opinion rejecting the “rule of reason” that the Supreme Court had applied in antitrust cases since 1911. He ruled that evidence of greed or lust for power was inessential, monopoly itself was unlawful, even though it might result from otherwise unobjectionable business practices. In his view, "Congress did not condone "good trusts" and condemn "bad ones", it forbade all."
In 1950 Hand sustained the conviction of 11 American Communist Party leaders on Smith Act charges of conspiracy to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government. His reasoning was adopted by Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson when the Supreme Court also upheld the convictions (Dennis v. United States, 1951). In a later case (Yates v. United States, 1957), the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren considerably restricted the applicability of the Smith Act.
Yet the public rightly regarded Hand as a chief judicial upholder of constitutional liberty. Much of this reputation depended on his extrajudicial speeches and articles, collected in The Spirit of Liberty (third edition, 1959). Much also was attributable to his skill in interpreting statutes in the light of historical principles of freedom and to the standards which he maintained in reviewing criminal convictions and administrative orders.
Protestant in his young age, Agnostic in adulthood.
Politics
Hand's civil instincts were at odds with the duty of a judge to stay aloof from politics. As a judge he respected even bad laws, as a member of society he felt free to question the decisions behind legislation. In his opinion, members of a democratic society should be involved in legislative decision-making. He therefore regarded toleration as a prerequisite of civil liberty. In practice, this even meant that those who wish to promote ideas repugnant to the majority should be free to do so, within broad limits.
Views
As a student, he lost his faith in God, and from that point on he became a skeptic. Hand's view of the world has been identified as relativistic. He saw the Constitution and the law as compromises to resolve conflicting interests, possessing no moral force of their own. This denial that any divine or natural rights are embodied in the Constitution led Hand to a positivistic view of the Bill of Rights. In this approach, provisions of the Constitution, such as freedom of press, freedom of speech, and equal protection, should be interpreted through their wording and in the light of historical analysis rather than as "guides on concrete occasions". For Hand, moral values were a product of their times and a matter of taste.
Connections
During a 1901 summer holiday in the Québec resort of La Malbaie, he met 25-year-old Frances Fincke, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. Though indecisive in most matters, he waited only a few weeks before proposing. The more cautious Fincke postponed her answer for almost a year, while Hand wrote to and occasionally saw her.
The next summer, both Hand and Fincke returned to La Malbaie, and at the end of August 1902, they became engaged and kissed for the first time. They married on December 6, 1902, shortly after Hand had accepted a post with the Manhattan law firm of Zabriskie, Burrill & Murray. The couple had three daughters: Mary Deshon (born 1905), Frances (born 1907), and Constance (born 1909).
In 1914, Hand moved his offices into the recently completed Woolworth Building. The family at first spent summers in Mount Kisco, with Hand commuting on the weekends.
After 1910, they rented summer homes in Cornish, New Hampshire. As Cornish was a nine-hour train journey from New York, the couple were separated for long periods. Hand could join the family only for vacations.
The Hands became friends of the noted artist Maxfield Parrish, who lived in nearby Plainfield. The Misses Hand posed for some of his paintings.The Hands also became close friends of Cornish resident Louis Dow, a Dartmouth College professor. Frances Hand spent increasing amounts of time with Dow while her husband was in New York, and tension crept into the marriage. Despite speculation, however, there is no evidence that she and Dow were lovers. Hand regretted Frances' long absences and urged her to spend more time with him, but he maintained an enduring friendship with Dow. Fearing he might otherwise lose her altogether, Hand came to accept Frances' desire to spend time in the country with another man.