Tom C. Clark
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office August 19, 1949[1] – June 12, 1967
Nominated by	Harry Truman
Preceded by	Frank Murphy
Succeeded by	Thurgood Marshall
59th Attorney General of the United States
In office June 27, 1945 – July 26, 1949
President	Harry Truman
Preceded by	Francis Biddle
Succeeded by	J. Howard McGrath
Personal details
Born	Thomas Campbell Clark (1899-09-23)September 23, 1899 Dallas, Texas
Died	June 13, 1977(1977-06-13) (aged 77) New York City
Alma mater	University of Texas School of Law
Religion	Presbyterian[2]
Military service
Service/branch	United States National Guard
Unit	Texas

Thomas Campbell "Tom C." Clark (September 23, 1899 – June 13, 1977) was United States Attorney General from 1945 to 1949 and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1949–1967).

Early life and career[link]

Clark was born in Dallas, Texas to Virginia Maxey (nee Falls) and William Henry Clark.^[3] A graduate of Dallas High,^[4] he served as a Texas National Guard infantryman in 1918; afterward he studied law, receiving his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1922. He was a brother of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and later served as their international president. He set up a law practice in his home town of Dallas from 1922 to 1937, but left private practice for a period to serve as civil district attorney for the city from 1927 to 1932.^[5]

Clark, a Democrat, joined the Justice Department in 1937 as a special assistant to the U.S. attorney general for war risk litigation.^[5] He served as civilian coordinator for the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans during the opening months of World War II. He headed the antitrust division at Justice in 1943, and the criminal division from 1943 to 1945.^[5]

Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice[link]

Appointed Attorney General by President Harry Truman in 1945^[6], Clark was nominated to the Court on August 2, 1949, filling the vacancy left by the death of Frank Murphy. The New York Times called Clark "a personal and political friend [of Truman's] with no judicial experience and few demonstrated qualifications."^[7] Nevertheless, Clark was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 18, 1949 by voice vote, receiving his commission the following day.^[5]

Truman later came to regret his choice; he remarked to a biographer many years later that "Tom Clark was my biggest mistake."^[8][9] The change in Truman's attitude stemmed from Clark's vote to strike down as unconstitutional Truman's seizure of the nation's steel mills to end a strike in 1952's Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer.

Clark's former residence in Washington, D.C.

Justice Murphy, Clark's predecessor, had made a 5 to 4 majority on the Supreme Court for those justices who viewed the Court as a possible instrument of social change.^[10] But Clark, along with Truman's other conservative appointees, would change that.^[10] While on the Supreme Court, Clark was generally a conservative who nonetheless proved a key vote in some Warren Court cases expanding the scope of individual rights. He is noted for writing the majority opinion in the landmark cases Mapp v. Ohio, applying the Fourth Amendment "exclusionary rule" to the states, and Abington School District v. Schempp, invalidating daily Bible readings in public schools. Clark supported the end of racial segregation, joining the unanimous decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and Sweatt v. Painter.

Later life[link]

Clark in the Oval Office in 1967 after retiring from the Supreme Court.

Clark assumed senior status, effectively retiring from the Supreme Court, on June 12, 1967.^[5] He did so to avoid a conflict of interest when his son, Ramsey Clark, was appointed Attorney General. He was succeeded on the Court by Thurgood Marshall. Lyndon Johnson was said^{[according to whom?]} to have appointed Ramsey Clark as Attorney General precisely to force Tom Clark off the bench, leaving a vacancy so that LBJ could appoint Marshall as the first African-American Justice on the Supreme Court. After Clark's retirement he served as a visiting judge on several U.S. Courts of Appeals,^[11] as director of the Federal Judicial Center, and as Chair of the Board of Directors for the American Judicature Society.^[5]

Tom C. Clark State Office Building

Clark died in New York City and is buried in Restland Memorial Park, Dallas, Texas. Tom C. Clark High School of the Northside Independent School District of San Antonio, Texas is named in honor of him. Also named after him is the Tom C. Clark Building, an office building of the Texas Judiciary in Austin. His former law clerks honored him by creating the Tom C. Clark award given to the outstanding Supreme Court Fellow each year. Winners of this award include Professor Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and Professor Barbara A. Perry, Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs and former Carter Glass Professor of Government at Sweet Briar College. In 1977, Clark became the first recipient of the Distinguished Jurist Award at Mississippi State University.^{[citation needed]}

An extensive collection of Clark's papers, including his Supreme Court files, is housed at the University of Texas in Austin. The law school also maintains the "Tom C. Clark" fellowship, entitling selected students with a sizable tuition subsidy. The main student lounge in the school is named after Clark as well. A smaller collection, primarily relating to Clark's years as Attorney General, is located at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.

Clark became an Eagle Scout in 1914 and was a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.^[12]

Clark was a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity and served as the fraternity's International President from 1966 to 1968.^{[citation needed]}

Justice Clark's personal papers, consisting of 524 linear feet (869 boxes, 20 scrapbooks, around 1,000 photographs, and approximately 100 oversize items) are in the care of the University of Texas School of Law.^[13]

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Abraham, Henry J., Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
• Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies,1789–1995 (2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001) ISBN 1-56802-126-7; ISBN 978-1-56802-126-3.
• Frank, John P., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions (Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors) (Chelsea House Publishers: 1995) ISBN 0-7910-1377-4, ISBN 978-0-7910-1377-9.
• Gronlund, Mimi Clark (2010). Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark: A Life of Service. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 328. ISBN 0-292-71990-6. 
• Martin, Fenton S. and Goehlert, Robert U., The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography, (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990). ISBN 0-87187-554-3.
• Urofsky, Melvin I., The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary (New York: Garland Publishing 1994). 590 pp. ISBN 0-8153-1176-1; ISBN 978-0-8153-1176-8.
• Wohl, Alexander, "Mapp v. Ohio Turns 50 -- If a moderate Texan could love the exclusionary rule, why can't judicial conservatives?" Slate, June 7, 2011.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tom C. Clark

• University of Texas biography
• Tom C. Clark at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Guide to the Papers of Justice Tom C. Clark at the Tarlton Law Library The University of Texas School of Law online archive
• Oral History Interview with Tom Clark, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

v t e United States Attorneys General Randolph Bradford Lee Lincoln Breckinridge Rodney Pinkney Rush Wirt Berrien Taney Butler Grundy Gilpin Crittenden Legaré Nelson Mason Clifford Toucey Johnson Crittenden Cushing Black Stanton Bates Speed Stanbery Evarts Hoar Akerman Williams Pierrepont Taft Devens MacVeagh Brewster Garland Miller Olney Harmon McKenna Griggs Knox Moody Bonaparte Wickersham McReynolds Gregory Palmer Daugherty Stone Sargent W D Mitchell Cummings Murphy Jackson Biddle T C Clark McGrath McGranery Brownell Rogers Kennedy Katzenbach W R Clark J N Mitchell Kleindienst Richardson Saxbe Levi Bell Civiletti Smith Meese Thornburgh Barr Reno Ashcroft Gonzales Mukasey Holder

Supreme Court of the United States

The Vinson Court Chief Justice: Frederick Moore Vinson (1946–1953) 1949–1953: H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | R.H. Jackson | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | S. Minton The Warren Court Chief Justice: Earl Warren (1953–1969) 1953–1954: H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | R.H. Jackson | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | S. Minton 1955–1956: H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | S. Minton | J.M. Harlan II 1956–1957: H. Black | S.F. Reed | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan 1957–1958: H. Black | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | H.H. Burton | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | C.E. Whittaker 1958–1962: H. Black | F. Frankfurter | Wm. O. Douglas | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | C.E. Whittaker | P. Stewart 1962–1965: H. Black | Wm. O. Douglas | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | P. Stewart | B. White | A.J. Goldberg 1965–1967: H. Black | Wm. O. Douglas | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | P. Stewart | B. White | A. Fortas

v t e Cabinet of President Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) Vice President None (1945–1949) Alben W. Barkley (1949–1953) Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr. (1945) James F. Byrnes (1945–1947) George Marshall (1947–1949) Dean Acheson (1949–1953) Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson (1945) Robert P. Patterson (1945–1947) Kenneth Claiborne Royall (1947) Secretary of Defense James Forrestal (1947–1949) Louis Arthur Johnson (1949–1950) George Marshall (1950–1951) Robert A. Lovett (1951–1953) Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1945) Fred M. Vinson (1945–1946) John W. Snyder (1946–1953) Attorney General Francis Biddle (1945) Tom C. Clark (1945–1949) J. Howard McGrath (1949–1952) James P. McGranery (1952–1953) Postmaster General Frank Comerford Walker (1945) Robert E. Hannegan (1945–1947) Jesse M. Donaldson (1947–1953) Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal (1945–1947) Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (1945–1946) Julius A. Krug (1946–1949) Oscar L. Chapman (1949–1953) Secretary of the Agriculture Claude R. Wickard (1945) Clinton P. Anderson (1945–1948) Charles F. Brannan (1948–1953) Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace (1945–1946) William Averell Harriman (1946–1948) Charles W. Sawyer (1948–1953) Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1945) Lewis B. Schwellenbach (1945–1948) Maurice J. Tobin (1948–1953)

Clark
Family name
A scribe or clerk, the occupation from which the name derives
Meaning	Clerk, scribe, secretary
Region of origin	England
Language(s) of origin	Old English
Related names	Clarke, Clerk
Footnotes: Frequency Comparisons[1]

Clark is an English surname in the English language, ultimately derived from the Latin clericus meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educated or a old man with a moustache. Clark evolved from "clerk". First records of the name are found in 12th century England. The name has many variants.^[2]

Clark is the twenty-seventh most common surname in the United Kingdom.^[1]

According to the 1990 United States Census, Clark was the twenty-first most frequently encountered surname, accounting for 0.23% of the population.^[3]

Clark is also an occasional given name, as in the case of Clark Gable.

Probably the most famouse person named Clark is Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman

List of people with surname Clark[link]

People with the surname Clark include:

• Abraham Clark (1725–1794), American politician and Revolutionary War figure
• Alan Clark (1928–1999), British Conservative politician and author, son of Kenneth Clark
• Allen George Clark (1898–1962), British businessman
• Andy Clark (musician), British musician
• Anne Clark (born 1960), poet-songwriter
• Benjamin S. W. Clark (1829–1912), New York politician
• Billy J. Clark (1778–1866), New York physician and politician
• Bob Clark (Benjamin "Bob" Clark) (1941–2007), American director
• Brian Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Buddy Clark (1911–1949), American singer
• Carmel Clark (born 1965), New Zealand swimmer
• Catherine Clark (born 1976), Canadian television host
• Charles Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Chris Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Christian Clark (born 1979), Australian actor
• Claudine Clark, R&B singer and performer of the 1962 hit record "Party Lights"
• Colin Clark (disambiguation)
• Corrie Clark (born 1982), American breaststroke swimmer
• Dallas Clark, American football player
• Daniel Clark (Canadian politician and actor), Canadian actor
• Daniel Kinnear Clark (1822–1896), British railway mechanical engineer
• Darius Clark (1798–1871), New York physician and politician
• Dave Clark (musician) (born 1942), drummer of The Dave Clark Five
• David Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Davis Wasgatt Clark (1812–1871), American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
• Dick Clark (disambiguation), several people
  • Dick Clark (1929–2012), entertainer and producer, host of Pyramid and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve
• Douglas Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Duncan Clark (1910–2007), an American public health specialist
• Duncan Clark (athlete) (1915–2003), Scottish hammer thrower
• Dwight Clark, American football player
• Ernest Clark (1912–1994), British actor
• Eugene Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Frank Clark (footballer), English football player
  • Frank M. Clark (1915–2003), American Congressman
• Gavin Brown Clark (1846–1930), MP for Caithness
• George Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Gerry Clark (1927–1999), New Zealand sailor and ornithologist
• Ginger Clark (1879–1943), American baseball pitcher
• Glenn Clark (born 1969), Canadian coach of Toronto Rock
• Helen Clark (born 1950), Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008
• Hilda Clark (1872–1932), American Coca-Cola advertising spokesperson
• Hilda Margery Clarke (born 1926), English painter and curator
• Horace Clark, 1830s New York politician
• Horace F. Clark (1815–1873), US Congressman from New York
• Hugh Massey Clark (1886–1956), New York philatelist
• Hulda Regehr Clark, alternative medicine practitioner
• Isabella Clark, wife of Prime Minister of Canada Sir John A. Macdonald
• Jack Clark (disambiguation), several people
• James Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Jeff Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Joe Clark (born 1939), former Prime Minister of Canada
• John Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Jonas Gilman Clark (1815–1900), American businessman and the founder of Clark University
• Joseph Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Joshua Clark, (born 1980), American writer
• Karen Clark (born 1945), American politician from Minnesota
• Katy Clark (born 1967), British politician and trade union official
• Kenneth Clark (psychologist) (1914–2005), African American psychologist who testified in Brown v. Board of Education
• Kenneth Clark (1902–1983), British art historian; creator of the series Civilisation
• Leslie J. Clark (1924–2003), British engineer and founder of Parvalux
• Louis Clark, musician and conductor with the Orchestra (former members of ELO and ELO Part II)
• Manning Clark (1915–1991), Australian historian
• Marcus R. Clark (born 1956), Louisiana Supreme Court justice
• Mark Wayne Clark (1896–1984), American Army General in WW2 (Italy) and the Korean War
• Nancy B. Clark, person of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts
• Ocky Clark (born 1960), American middle distance runner
• Orville Clark (1801–1862), New York politician
• Otey Clark (born 1915), American baseball pitcher
• Ramsey Clark (born 1927), U.S. Attorney General and activist
• Ranza Clark (born 1961), Canadian middle distance runner
• Roger Clark, British rally driver
• Ryan Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Samuel Clark (disambiguation), several people
  • Samuel Delbert Clark (1910–2003), Canadian sociologist
• Sherman Clark (1899–1980), American Olympic rower and Rear Admiral
• Simon Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Steve Clark (1960–1991), British guitarist for Def Leppard
• Stuart Clark (born 1975), Australian cricketer
• Theresa Maria Clark (c. 1890 – 1953), person of New York
• Thomas Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Tom Clark (journalist), Canadian television journalist
• Tom C. Clark (1899–1977), U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Supreme Court justice
• Tracy Clark, fictional character from The CW primetime drama 90210
• Wendel Clark (born 1966), retired Canadian ice hockey player
• Wesley K. Clark (born 1944), American Army General in the Vietnam War and Kosovo
• Wilfrid Le Gros Clark (1895–1971), British palaeanthropologist
• Will Clark (born 1964), American baseball player
• William Clark (disambiguation), several people

See also[link]

• The Clark Sisters, American gospel vocalists from Detroit
• Clark (taxonomic authority)
• Clarke
• Clerke (disambiguation)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Clark(e) Surname DNA Project

This page or section lists people with the surname Clark. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.