Bessie Margolin grew up in the New Orleans Jewish Orphan’s Home, was one of the first women to graduate from Tulane Law School and earned her PhD in Law from Yale University in 1932. Her groundbreaking work as Assistant Solicitor of Labor for the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act championed many of the wage and hour rights Americans take for granted today and enshrined in law the basic human dignity of American workers. She still ranks sixth for most arguments at the Supreme Court by a woman, and her brilliance in banter with the Justices is legendary. Margolin’s passionate dedication to her life’s work made an indelible impact on American legal history and the lives of ordinary Americans.
It also shaped the life of our guest Marlene Trestman, author of Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin. Trestman followed Margolin’s guidance and her model from fellow ward of the New Orleans Jewish Children’s service to study at a prestigious law school, and finally to admission at the Supreme Court.
Trestman also authored Margolin’s biography for the Oxford American National Biography, and shares two National Archives Supreme Court recordings that demonstrate Margolin’s poise and wit in the courtroom: In a 1955 recording we hear Margolin sparring with Justice Felix Frankfurter. She won the case. In a 1960 argument, Margolin pokes fun at the way Justice Charles Whittaker worded his question. She won the case, but Whittaker dissented.
All photos courtesy of Marlene Trestman unless otherwise indicated
from The Tulanian magazine
photo courtesy of JFK Library
Marlene Trestman, author of Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin (LSU Press), is currently at work on a collective biography, Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The History of New Orleans’s Jewish Orphans’ Home, 1855-1946. Both books draw on experience. Lawyer-turned-author Trestman, who has won funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, American Jewish Archives, Supreme Court Historical Society, and Texas Jewish Historical Society, had a personal relationship with Margolin prompted by common childhood experiences; Margolin grew up in the orphanage and Trestman was a ward of the successor agency.
Music featured in this episode included
“Tin Roof Blues,” “Dippermouth Blues” and “Canal Street Blues” performed by The New Hot 5
“Goodbye Solider” composed and performed by Jeff Cuno
“Salut d’Amor” by Edward Elgar, performed by Peak Duo
“Shlof mayn kind” performed by Trialogo: Faye Nepon, Ivano Battiston and David Bellugi
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