New postage stamp to honor Louisville’s Louis Brandeis

October 23, 12:47 AMLouisville City Hall ExaminerThomas McAdam

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(Image:  USPS)

Louis D. Brandeis—the only Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to hail from Louisville—is being honored by the U.S. Postal Service, with his image on a postage stamp. The post office issued "the Brandeis stamp" on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., but had its New England unveiling at Brandeis University Wednesday, at Waltham, Massachusetts. 

If social justice champion Louis D. Brandeis were alive today, he might have felt it was "nice, but slightly unnerving" to have a U.S. postal stamp dedicated to him, his grandson, Walter Raushenbush, told the Waltham Daily News Tribune. "He would hope it would do something for social justice" that he fought so hard for, Raushenbush said following the stamp dedication at Brandeis University.

The U.S. Postal Service's Stamp Advisory Committee chose Brandeis, a United States Supreme Court justice from 1916 to 1939, and Supreme Court Justices Joseph Story, Felix Frankfurter, and William J. Brennan Jr., out of "thousands and thousands" of suggestions for its 2009 commemorative stamp program, said James J. Holland, Boston's postmaster. "Only people who have widespread, national appeal, can be commemorated on the stamp. Louis Brandeis was the associate justice most responsible for helping the Supreme Court shape the tools it needed to interpret the Constitution," said Holland.

A presentation will be given at the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law next month, on what would have been Brandeis’ 153rd birthday. Professor and Distinguished University Scholar Laura Rothstein will be giving an overview of Brandeis, his distinguished career and his connection to Louisville on Nov. 13.

The USPS site gives this mini-biography of Brandeis:

Louis D. Brandeis was the associate justice most responsible for helping the Supreme Court shape the tools it needed to interpret the Constitution in light of the sociological and economic conditions of the 20th century. “If we would guide by the light of reason,” he once exhorted his colleagues, “we must let our minds be bold.” A progressive and champion of reform, Brandeis devoted his life to social justice. He defended the right of every citizen to speak freely, and his groundbreaking conception of the right to privacy continues to impact legal thought today.

Read more:  USPS web site

Read more:  Brandeis University news

Read more:  U of L Brandeis Law School news

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