Bailey Aldrich (April 23, 1907 – September 25, 2002) was a United States circuit judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (in case citations, 1st Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maine * District of Massachusetts ...

and previously was a United States District Judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose Jurisdiction (area), territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth (U.S. state), C ...

Education and career

A native of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, Aldrich graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1928 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1932. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1954. Aldrich was in private practice in Boston from 1932 to 1954.

Federal judicial service

Aldrich was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 1, 1954, to the

, to a new seat authorized by 68 Stat. 8. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on April 23, 1954, and received his commission on April 27, 1954. His service terminated on September 14, 1959, due to his elevation to the First Circuit. Aldrich was nominated by President Eisenhower on February 26, 1959, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Calvert Magruder. He was confirmed by the Senate on September 9, 1959, and received his commission the next day. He served as Chief Judge and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1965 to 1972. He assumed senior status on August 31, 1972. His service terminated on September 25, 2002, due to his death in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Massachusetts.

Conflict with Senator McCarthy

According to Ted Morgan in ''Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America'', Judge Aldrich drew the ire of Senator

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...

in 1955, when Aldrich dismissed contempt of Congress charges against Leon J. Kamin. In February 1956, McCarthy wrote to complain to President Eisenhower, accusing Judge Aldrich of harboring sympathy toward Communists. He had learned from the '' New Bedford Standard-Times'' that Aldrich had initially refused, on principle, to sign a non-Communist affidavit card upon his appointment as a trustee to the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital. Massachusetts Governor Christian Herter had nominated him for the trusteeship on August 2, 1955, two months before the Kamin trial. According to Morgan, the judge wrote that he "would rather forgo the post on the hospital board than sign the card." He finally did sign the card on September 13, "after being told that failure to comply would cause great embarrassment to the Herter administration," but McCarthy was not satisfied by the news that Aldrich had eventually complied. President Eisenhower ignored McCarthy's complaint.

Personal

Aldrich married Elizabeth Perkins, who had studied at the Buckingham School and Bryn Mawr College. Elizabeth was an editor. American philosopher Ralph Barton Perry credits Elizabeth Perkins Aldrich as a de facto co-author of his

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning biography ''The Thought and Character of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

''. Bailey and Elizabeth Aldrich had two sons: David and the poet Jonathan Aldrich. Aldrich was the grandson of 19th century author Thomas Bailey Aldrich. url=http://pressherald.com/2021/01/10/obituaryjonathan-aldrich/ , title=Obituary: Jonathan Aldrich , accessdate=2021-06-04/ref>

Bibliography

* Cohen, Kenneth A. "Bailey Aldrich and the Modern First Circuit: Old Virtues and New Civil Liberties." ''Massachusetts Law Review'' 74 (December 1989): 247-55.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldrich, Bailey 1907 births 2002 deaths Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts United States district court judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit United States court of appeals judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Lawyers from Boston