Louis Brandeis – 1856-1941

As a young man, Brandeis earned a reputation as “the people’s attorney,” often fighting the interests of big finance and big business, especially trusts and monopolies. The reform-minded Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1916—he was the first Jew to sit on the high court—and he embarked on a 23-year career in which he steered a brilliant middle course between government authority and individual liberty.