During a period when a hysterical fear of subversion divided the nation, Hand was viewed as a liberal defender of civil liberties.

He rose to fame outside the legal profession in 1944 during World War II after giving a short address in Central Park that struck a popular chord in its appeal for tolerance.

Hand possessed a gift for the English language, and his writings are admired as legal literature. Friends and admirers often lobbied for Hand's promotion to the Supreme Court, but circumstances and his political past conspired against his appointment. Scholars have recognized the Second Circuit under Hand as one of the finest appeals courts in the country's history. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge promoted Hand to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which he went on to lead as the Senior Circuit Judge (later retitled Chief Judge) from 1939 until his semi-retirement in 1951. He ran unsuccessfully as the Progressive Party's candidate for Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1913, but withdrew from active politics shortly afterwards. Between 19, under the influence of Herbert Croly's social theories, Hand supported New Nationalism.

The profession suited his detached and open-minded temperament, and his decisions soon won him a reputation for craftsmanship and authority. After a short career as a lawyer in Albany and New York City, he was appointed at the age of 37 as a Federal District Judge in Manhattan in 1909. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.īorn and raised in Albany, New York, Hand majored in philosophy at Harvard College and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. District Court for the Southern District of New York and later as an appellate judge on the U.S. He served as a federal trial judge on the U.S. Billings Learned Hand ( / ˈ l ɜːr n ɪ d/ LURN-id Janu– August 18, 1961) was an American jurist, lawyer, and judicial philosopher.

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