View source for Arthur Goldberg

{{Short description|American statesman and jurist (1908–1990)}}
{{for-multi|the attorney and founder of Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality|Arthur A. Goldberg|the American record producer|Art Rupe}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Arthur Goldberg
| image               = Justice Arthur Goldberg - 1965 - A720-5.jpg
| office              = 6th [[United States Ambassador to the United Nations|United States Ambassador to the<br />United Nations]]
| president           = [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]
| term_start          = July 28, 1965
| term_end            = June 24, 1968
| predecessor         = [[Adlai Stevenson II]]
| successor           = [[George Ball (diplomat)|George Ball]]
| office1             = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Associate Justice of the Supreme Court<br />of the United States]]
| nominator1          = [[John F. Kennedy]]
| term_start1         = October 1, 1962<!--Term start date as per www.supremecourt.gov, reflects date oath taken-->
| term_end1           = July 25, 1965<ref name=SCOTUSjustices>{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| title= Justices 1789 to Present| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 15, 2022}}</ref>
| predecessor1        = [[Felix Frankfurter]]
| successor1          = [[Abe Fortas]]
| office2             = 9th [[United States Secretary of Labor]]
| president2          = [[John F. Kennedy]]
| term_start2         = January 21, 1961
| term_end2           = September 20, 1962
| predecessor2        = [[James P. Mitchell]]
| successor2          = [[W. Willard Wirtz]]
| birth_name          = Arthur Joseph Goldberg
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1908|8|8}}
| birth_place         = [[Chicago]], Illinois, U.S.
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1990|1|19|1908|8|8}}
| death_place         = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| spouse              = {{Marriage|[[Dorothy Kurgans Goldberg|Dorothy Kurgans]]|1931|1988|end=died}}
| children            = 2
| education           = {{Plain list|
* [[Malcolm X College|Crane College]]
* [[DePaul University]]
* {{nowrap|[[Northwestern University]] ([[Bachelor of Science in Law|BSL]],}} [[Juris Doctor|JD]])
}}
| relatives           = [[Barry Goldberg]] (nephew)
| allegiance          = United States 
| branch              = {{tree list}}
* [[United States Army]]
* [[United States Air Force]] 
** [[Air Force Reserve Command|Air Force Reserve]]
{{tree list/end}}
| serviceyears        = 1942–1945 <br> 1946
| rank                = [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]]
| unit                = [[Office of Strategic Services]]
| battles             = [[World War II]]<br>[[Vietnam War]]
| caption             = Goldberg in 1965
| awards              = [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] (1978)
}}

'''Arthur Joseph Goldberg''' (August 8, 1908{{spaced ndash}}January 19, 1990) was an American politician and jurist who served as the 9th [[United States Secretary of Labor|U.S. secretary of labor]], an [[associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]], and the 6th [[United States ambassador to the United Nations]].

Born in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], Goldberg graduated from the [[Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law|Northwestern University School of Law]] in 1930. He became a prominent labor attorney and helped arrange the merger of the [[American Federation of Labor]] and the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]]. During [[World War II]], he served in the [[Office of Strategic Services]], organizing European resistance to [[Nazi Germany]]. In 1961, President [[John F. Kennedy]] appointed Goldberg as the secretary of labor. During [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]], he served in the [[Air Force Reserve Command|Air Force Reserve]].

In 1962, Kennedy successfully nominated Goldberg to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of [[Felix Frankfurter]]. Goldberg aligned with the liberal bloc of justices and wrote the majority opinion in ''[[Escobedo v. Illinois]]''. In 1965, Goldberg resigned from the bench to accept appointment by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] as the ambassador to the [[United Nations]]. In that role, he helped draft [[UN Resolution 242]] in the aftermath of the [[Six-Day War]]. He ran for [[governor of New York]] in [[1970 New York gubernatorial election|1970]] but was defeated by [[Nelson Rockefeller]]. After his defeat, he served as president of the [[American Jewish Committee]] and continued to practice law.

==Early life and education==
Goldberg was born and raised on [[West Side, Chicago]], the youngest of eight children of Rebecca Perlstein and Joseph Goldberg, [[Immigration of Eastern European Jews|Orthodox Jewish immigrants]] from the [[Russian Empire]]. His paternal line derived from a [[shtetl]] called Zenkhov, in [[Ukraine]], while his mother's family was from [[Tetiev]]. Goldberg's father, a produce peddler, died in 1916, forcing Goldberg's siblings to quit school and go to work to support the family. As the youngest child, Goldberg was allowed to continue school, but worked jobs on the side, including as a vendor at [[Wrigley Field]] and as a library clerk, to help support his family. He was childhood friends with future professional boxer [[Jackie Fields]].<ref name=JewishJustices /> Goldberg attended classes and lectures at the [[Hull House]], which aimed to educate recent European immigrants.<ref name=JewishJustices /> He graduated from [[Harrison Technical High School]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Chicago Carter Harrison Technical High School|url=http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id697.html|publisher=Illinois HS Glory Days|access-date=June 24, 2018|archive-date=July 29, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729183402/http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id697.html|url-status=live}}</ref> at the age of 16.

Goldberg's interest in the law was sparked by the noted murder trial in 1924 of [[Leopold and Loeb]], two wealthy young Chicagoans who were spared the [[death penalty]] with the help of their high-powered [[legal defense|defense]] attorney, [[Clarence Darrow]]. Goldberg attended the trial while he was a high school senior.<ref name=JewishJustices /> Goldberg later pointed to the case as inspiration for his opposition to the death penalty on the bench, since he had seen how inequality of social status could lead to unfair application of the death penalty.<ref name=JewishJustices>{{cite book |last=Dalin |first=David |year=2017 |title=Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan |location=Waltham, Massachusetts |publisher=Brandeis University Press}}</ref> Jewish Supreme Court Justices [[Louis Brandeis]] and [[Benjamin Cardozo]] also served as inspiration to Goldberg from a young age.<ref name=BLS />

Goldberg, who worked part time as a construction worker, took night courses at [[Crane Junior College]] of the [[City Colleges of Chicago]] and [[DePaul University]]. He later earned a [[Bachelor of Science|B.S.L.]] (''[[magna cum laude]]''; 1929) and [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] (1930) degrees from [[Northwestern University]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/images/goldberg.html | title=Arthur J. Goldberg Papers (Library of Congress) | website=[[Library of Congress]] | access-date=January 28, 2019 | archive-date=January 1, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101053422/https://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/images/goldberg.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Goldberg served as the Editor of the ''Illinois Law Review'' (now known as the [[Northwestern University Law Review]]) and helped Law Dean [[John Henry Wigmore]] write his third edition of the treatise on evidence.<ref name=JewishJustices /> Goldberg graduated from Northwestern law school in just 2.5 years and with the highest academic record ever at Northwestern. Being just 21-years-old, he was too young to pass the Illinois Bar.<ref name=BLS /> However, he sued and successfully argued his own case to be admitted to the bar.<ref name=BLS />

In 1931, Goldberg married [[Dorothy Kurgans Goldberg|Dorothy Kurgans]]. They had one daughter, Barbara Goldberg Cramer, and one son, Robert M. Goldberg (an attorney in [[Anchorage, Alaska]]).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-20-mn-226-story.html | work=Los Angeles Times | first1=Don | last1=Shannon | first2=Shawn | last2=Pogatchnik | title=Ex-U.S. Justice and U.N. Envoy Goldberg Dies | date=January 20, 1990 | access-date=March 29, 2012 | archive-date=October 14, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014171919/http://articles.latimes.com/1990-01-20/news/mn-226_1_justice-goldberg | url-status=live }}</ref> He was the uncle of prolific [[blues rock]] keyboardist [[Barry Goldberg]].<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Stars of David: Rock'n'roll's Jewish Stories|author=Benarde, S.R.|date=2003|publisher=Brandeis University Press, published by University Press of New England|isbn=9781584653035|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XI4-VnSrEcAC|page=104|access-date=October 15, 2014|archive-date=July 5, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140705130307/http://books.google.com/books?id=XI4-VnSrEcAC|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Military Services==
During World War II, Goldberg joined the [[United States Army]] in 1942, wherein he served as a [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] and later a [[Major (United States)|major]], and he served until the war ended in 1945.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arthur Goldberg {{!}} AFL-CIO |url=https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/arthur-goldberg |access-date=2024-12-02 |website=aflcio.org}}</ref> He wanted to join the Marines, but was not physically fit enough.<ref name=BLS /> Goldberg served as well in an espionage group operated by the [[Office of Strategic Services]], the precursor to the [[CIA]],<ref name=BLS>[http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1997/01/art5full.pdf Edward B. Shils, "Arthur Goldberg: Proof of the American Dream"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531072054/http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1997/01/art5full.pdf |date=May 31, 2013 }} ''Monthly Labor Review'', January 1997</ref> serving as chief of the Labor Desk, an autonomous division of the American intelligence agency that was charged with the task of cultivating contacts and networks within the European underground labor movement during World War II. The [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] stated, "Goldberg's file notes that as both a civilian and a member of the Army, he supervised a section in the [[Secret Intelligence Branch]] of OSS to maintain contact with labor groups and organizations regarded as potential resistance elements in enemy-occupied and enemy countries. He organized anti-Nazi European transportation workers into an extensive intelligence network."<ref name="jta">{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/109936.html |title=JTA - Jewish & Israel News |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |access-date=October 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819021532/http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/109936.html |archive-date=August 19, 2008 }}</ref>

During the [[Vietnam War]], Goldberg commissioned as a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] in the [[Air Force Reserve Command|Air Force Reserve]] but resigned in 1964 to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest after his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Goldberg, Arthur Joseph |website=Federal Judicial Center |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/goldberg-arthur-joseph |access-date=2024-11-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |agency=[[United Press International]] |date=March 1, 1964 |title=Goldberg Left Air Reserve To Avert Interest Conflict |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/01/archives/goldberg-left-air-reserve-to-avert-interest-conflict.html |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=26 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203100422/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/01/archives/goldberg-left-air-reserve-to-avert-interest-conflict.html |archive-date=2024-12-03}}</ref>

==Early legal career==
Goldberg was unable to work in Chicago's big law firms because they would not hire Jews. Instead, he started his legal career at Pritzger & Pritzger, a firm founded by German Jews.<ref name=BLS /> However, he was uncomfortable with his work at Pritzger because the work mainly dealt with representing large businesses.<ref name=BLS />

Goldberg's interest in labor law spiked at the start of [[The Great Depression]] and in 1933 he left Pritzger to create his own boutique law firm, which was focused on labor law.<ref name=BLS /> Goldberg joined the [[National Lawyers Guild]] (NLG), a group that was advocating for [[The New Deal]], in the mid-1930s.<ref name=BLS /> However, Goldberg, among others, resigned a few years later due to the NLG's growing association with the American Communist Party.<ref name=BLS />

Goldberg became a prominent labor lawyer and represented striking Chicago newspaper workers on behalf of the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO) in 1938. The strike went on for eight months and Goldberg spent almost everyday in court arguing on the worker's behalf. Eventually, the strike persuaded [[William Randolph Hearst]] to recognize the newspaper union.<ref name=JewishJustices /> Appointed general counsel to the CIO in 1948 to succeed [[Lee Pressman]],<ref>{{cite news| title = CIO Names General Counsel| work = [[The New York Times]]| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1948/03/05/archives/cio-names-general-counsel.html| page = 7| date = 5 March 1948| access-date = 18 March 2017| archive-date = July 25, 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180725214456/https://www.nytimes.com/1948/03/05/archives/cio-names-general-counsel.html| url-status = live}}</ref> Goldberg served as a negotiator and chief legal adviser in the merger of the [[American Federation of Labor]] and CIO in 1955. AFL-CIO is one of the US major labor unions representing America's workers and labor. Goldberg also served as general counsel of the [[United Steelworkers|United Steelworkers of America]].<ref name=BLS />

==Political career==

[[File:ajgoldberg.jpg|thumb|upright|Official portrait of Arthur Goldberg]]

Goldberg was an active participant in the National Citizens Political Action Committee and the CIO Political Action Committee. He supported the presidential campaigns of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Harry Truman]].<ref name=BLS /> Goldberg initially supported Senator [[Joseph McCarthy|Joseph McCarthy's]] efforts to investigate communism in the United States, but soon opposed those efforts after it became clear they threatened the organized labor movement.<ref name=BLS />

In 1960, Goldberg wanted his friend [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] to run for president, but Stevenson encouraged Goldberg to back [[Hubert Humphrey]].<ref name=BLS /> Instead, Goldberg backed Senator [[John F. Kennedy]].<ref name=BLS /> Goldberg served as a labor advisor to Kennedy's campaign and was influential in getting unions to back Kennedy.<ref name=BLS />

===Kennedy administration===
President [[John F. Kennedy]] nominated Goldberg to be [[United States Secretary of Labor|United States secretary of labor]], where he served from 1961 to 1962. He was the third Jew to be named to a Cabinet position.<ref name=JewishJustices /> Goldberg wanted to be named [[U.S. Attorney General|Attorney General]], so he would improve his chances of getting nominated to the Supreme Court, but that spot went to Kennedy's brother [[Robert F. Kennedy|Robert]].<ref name=BLS /> As Labor Secretary, Goldberg encouraged Kennedy to increase the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, create job opportunities for the youth and invest in economically distressed areas.<ref name=BLS /> Following Goldberg's advice, Kennedy established the [[Executive Order 10925|President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PCEEO)]], which ensured employees are treated fairly regardless of "race, creed, color, or national origin."<ref name=BLS /> Goldberg also championed the creation of the President's Advisory Committee on Labor-Management Policy.<ref name=BLS />

==Supreme Court==
On August 31, 1962, Kennedy [[Nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States|nominated]] Goldberg as an [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|associate justice]] of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]], to succeed [[Felix Frankfurter]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Supreme Court Nominations (1789-Present) |url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm |publisher=United States Senate |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=February 22, 2022}}</ref> who was retiring. Earlier that same year, Kennedy had considered nominating Goldberg to succeed [[Charles Evans Whittaker|Charles Whittaker]], but chose [[Byron White]] instead. Frankfurter and Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]] were consulted by the President beforehand and both gave their full support.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hanley |first=David |date=1979 |title=Behavioral Study of Justice Goldberg and the Supreme Court |journal=University of Baltimore Law Forum |volume=9 |issue=1 |url=http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lf/vol9/iss1/3 |access-date=March 18, 2022}}</ref>

He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 25,<ref>{{Cite report |last=McMillion |first=Barry J. |date=January 28, 2022 |title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President |url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf |publisher=Congressional Research Service |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=February 15, 2022}}</ref> and served on the Court from October 1, 1962, until July 25, 1965.<ref name=SCOTUSjustices/> Only one senator, [[Strom Thurmond]] from South Carolina, opposed his nomination.<ref name=JewishJustices /> During his tenure, the seat Goldberg occupied on the Court came to be informally known as the "[[List of Jewish United States Supreme Court justices|Jewish seat]]", as his two immediate predecessors—Frankfurter and, before him, [[Benjamin Cardozo]]—were also Jewish.<ref name=NPRRudin>{{Cite web |last=Rudin |first=Ken |date=May 28, 2009 |title=The 'Jewish Seat' in the Supreme Court |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/05/heres_a_question_from_carol.html |publisher=[[NPR]] |access-date=February 21, 2022}}</ref> In more recent times, more than one justice of Jewish descent have served on the Court simultaneously. For example, the Supreme Court careers of [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]], [[Stephen Breyer]], and [[Elena Kagan]] overlapped.

{{As of|2024}}, Goldberg is the last [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]] official to have also served on the Supreme Court.

Despite his short time on the bench, Goldberg played a significant role in the Court's [[jurisprudence]]. Replacing Justice Felix Frankfurter, who was a center-right Justice, Goldberg's liberal views on [[United States Constitution|constitutional]] questions shifted the Court's balance toward a broader construction of constitutional rights.<ref name=BLS /> A self-described judicial activist, Goldberg voted for a liberal outcome in 89 percent of cases before the Court.<ref name=JewishJustices />

His best-known opinion is his concurrence in ''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]'' (1965), arguing that the [[Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Ninth Amendment]] supported the existence of an unenumerated [[right of privacy]] in marriage. Goldberg wrote, "The language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments.... To hold that a right so basic and fundamental and so deep-rooted in our society as the right of privacy in marriage may be infringed because that right is not guaranteed in so many words by the first eight amendments to the Constitution is to ignore the Ninth Amendment, and to give it no effect whatsoever".<ref>''Griswold v. Connecticut'', 381 U.S. 479, 488, 491 (1965).</ref>
[[File:US Supreme Court November 19, 1962.png|thumb|left|The U.S. Supreme Court in November 1962. Goldberg is standing furthest to the right.]]

Perhaps Goldberg's most influential move on the Court involved the death penalty. Goldberg argued in a 1963 internal Supreme Court [[Bench memorandum|memorandum]] that imposition of the death penalty was condemned by the international community and should be regarded as "[[cruel and unusual punishment]]," in contravention of the [[Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighth Amendment]]. Finding support in this position from two other justices ([[William J. Brennan]] and [[William O. Douglas]]), Goldberg published an opinion dissenting from the Court's denial of [[certiorari]] in a case, ''Rudolph v. Alabama'', involving the imposition of the death penalty for rape, in which Goldberg cited the fact that only five nations responding to a UN survey indicated that they allowed imposition of the death penalty for rape, including the U.S., and that 33 states in the U.S. had outlawed the practice.

Goldberg's dissent sent a signal to lawyers across the nation to challenge the constitutionality of capital punishment in appeals. As a result of the influx of appeals, the death penalty effectively ceased to exist in the United States for the remainder of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Supreme Court considered the issue in the 1972 case of ''[[Furman v. Georgia]]'', where the Justices, in a 5 to 4 decision, effectively suspended the death penalty laws of states across the country on the ground of the capricious imposition of the penalty. That decision would be revisited in ''[[Gregg v. Georgia]]'' (1976), where the justices voted to allow the death penalty under some circumstances; the death penalty for rape of an adult female victim, however, would be struck down in ''[[Coker v. Georgia]]'' (1977). In 2008, the death penalty for rape of children was ruled unconstitutional by a 5 to 4 decision (''[[Kennedy v. Louisiana]]'').  Writing for ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Adam Liptak]] said that Goldberg's dissent helped "create the modern movement for the abolition of the death penalty."<ref>{{cite web |last=Liptak |first=Adam |title=Death Penalty Foes Split Over Taking Issue to Supreme Court |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/us/politics/death-penalty-opponents-split-over-taking-issue-to-supreme-court.html|date=November 3, 2015 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=March 31, 2022}}</ref>

Goldberg also wrote the majority opinions in ''[[Escobedo v. Illinois]]'', which provided criminal defendants the right to counsel during interrogation under the Sixth Amendment and ''[[Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez]]'', which declared unconstitutional parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that revoked citizenship for those that had fled the country in order to dodge the draft.<ref name=JewishJustices />

Despite Goldberg's short tenure on the court, a number of his [[law clerk]]s have gone on to become deeply influential. [[Stephen Breyer]] later became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and he held Goldberg's seat on the Court from 1994 until 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Deutch |first=Gabby |date=January 27, 2022 |title=Breyer retirement leaves open the Court's 'Jewish seat' |url=https://jewishinsider.com/2022/01/breyer-retirement-leaves-open-the-courts-jewish-seat/ |work=[[Jewish Insider]] |access-date=February 22, 2022}}</ref> Another of Goldberg's law clerks was Harvard law professor [[Alan Dershowitz]]. Since other justices would be unlikely to hire a Jewish clerk, Goldberg emphasized hiring Jewish clerks. Six out of eight of his law clerks were Jewish.<ref name=JewishJustices />

==UN ambassador==
[[File:Arthur Goldberg 1965.jpg|thumb|Goldberg being sworn in as UN ambassador by [[Hugo Black|Justice Hugo Black]], July 26, 1965. Lyndon Johnson (left) looks on.]]

In 1965, Goldberg was persuaded by Johnson to resign his seat on the court to replace the recently deceased [[Adlai Stevenson II]] as the [[List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Nations|U.S. ambassador]] to the [[United Nations]] (UN). Johnson wanted to appoint his friend, [[Abe Fortas]], to the court.<ref>{{cite news| title=The Reagan Court – Child of Lyndon Johnson?| author=David A. Kaplan| work=The New York Times| date=September 4, 1989| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/04/opinion/the-reagan-court-child-of-lyndon-johnson.html| access-date=October 20, 2008| archive-date=November 8, 2012| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121108154543/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/04/opinion/the-reagan-court-child-of-lyndon-johnson.html| url-status=live}}</ref> If any of his [[Great Society]] reforms were going to be deemed unconstitutional by the Court, he thought that Fortas would notify him in advance. Goldberg, who had declined an earlier offer to leave his position to be [[United States Secretary of Health and Human Services|Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare]], took Johnson's offer of the UN ambassadorship when Johnson discussed it with him on [[Air Force One]] to Illinois for Stevenson's funeral.<ref name="reaching glory">{{cite book| title=Reaching for Glory| author=Michael Beschloss| publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]| year=2001| url=https://archive.org/details/reachingforglory00mich| url-access=registration| access-date=October 20, 2008| isbn=978-0-7432-2714-8}}</ref> Goldberg was promised by Johnson that he would be a member of the president's cabinet and would be involved in all decisions involving ending the Vietnam War.<ref name=JewishJustices /> [[Bruce Allen Murphy]], a professor at [[Lafayette College]], wrote in one of his books that Johnson also told Goldberg that he would consider putting him on his ticket as vice president in the [[1968 United States presidential election]].<ref name=JewishJustices />

Goldberg wrote that he resigned to have influence in keeping the peace in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] and that after the crisis had passed, he expected he would be reappointed to the Supreme Court by Johnson to replace the retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren. He also said, "I had an exaggerated opinion of my capacities. I thought I could persuade Johnson that we were fighting the wrong war in the wrong place [and] to get out."<ref name="Stebenne">{{cite book |title=Arthur J. Goldberg, New Deal Liberal |url=https://archive.org/details/arthurjgoldbergn0000steb |url-access=registration |last=Stebenne |first=David L. |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-507105-0}}</ref>{{rp|348–351}}

David Stebenne, Goldberg's biographer, adds, "Many observers, then and later, found this answer hard to accept." He suggests, "Johnson must have had some influence over Goldberg that induced him [to resign from the Supreme Court]."  ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reported in 1962 that Johnson knew that for a party thrown in Johnson's honor that year, a Goldberg aide, Jerry Holleman, solicited contributions from wealthy supporters of Johnson, including [[Billy Sol Estes]]. Holleman accepted responsibility and there was no public awareness of Goldberg and Johnson's involvement.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=18 May 1962 |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896159,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |title=Tauter & Tauter |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114075031/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896159,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |archive-date=January 14, 2009 |access-date=May 28, 2008 |quote=Just two days before Holleman confirmed that he had asked Estes and other Texans to pick up the tab for a January dinner Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg gave for Lyndon Johnson, but said he backed off when he learned that Goldberg's policy was to pay for all such dinners himself. Goldberg promptly offered to produce canceled checks to prove he had paid for the dinner. Said Holleman of Billie Sol, in words reminiscent of a previous Democratic Administration: "I have not and I never will deny him as a friend."}}</ref>

Johnson said of the Goldberg decision in his later-released audio tapes:

{{blockquote|Goldberg would be able to answer the Russians ... very effectively.... He's got a bulldog face on him, and I think this Jew thing would take ''[[The New York Times]]'' — all this crowd that gives me hell all the time — and disarm them. And still have a Johnson man. I've always thought that Goldberg was the ablest man in Kennedy's Cabinet, and he was the best man to us.... Goldberg sold bananas, you know.... He's kind of like I am.... He's shined some shoes in his day and he's sold newspapers, and he's had to slug it out....<ref name="reaching glory"/>
}}

Goldberg chose to retain only one of Stevenson's aides, US ambassador [[Charles W. Yost]], a career Foreign Service Office who was able to help Goldberg navigate the intricacies of United Nations procedures, and foreign affairs debates in the Security Council. While serving as UN ambassador, Goldberg was successful at brokering peace between Greece and Turkey during the [[Cyprus crisis of 1967]] and helped diplomatically resolve a conflict between [[North Korea]] and the United States following the 1968 [[Pueblo incident]].<ref name=JewishJustices />

===Resolution 242===
[[File:Dan Hadani collection (990044328540205171).jpg|alt=Goldberg arrives in Israel, 1969.|thumb|upright|Goldberg arrives in Israel, 1969]]
In 1967, Goldberg was a key drafter of [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 242|Resolution 242]], which followed the 1967 [[Six-Day War]] between [[Israel]] and the [[Arab states]]. While interpretation of that resolution has subsequently become controversial, Goldberg was very clear that the resolution does not obligate Israel to withdraw from all of the captured territories. He stated that:

{{blockquote|
The notable omissions in language used to refer to withdrawal are the words ''the'', ''all'', and the ''June 5, 1967, lines''. I refer to the English text of the resolution. The French and Soviet texts differ from the English in this respect, but the English text was voted on by the Security Council, and thus it is determinative. In other words, there is lacking a declaration requiring Israel to withdraw from the (or all the) territories occupied by it on and after June 5, 1967. Instead, the resolution stipulates ''withdrawal from occupied territories without defining the extent of withdrawal''. And it can be inferred from the incorporation of the words ''secure and recognized boundaries'' that the territorial adjustments to be made by the parties in their peace settlements could encompass less than a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories [italics by Goldberg].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.mythsandfacts.org/ReplyOnlineEdition/chapter-8.html | title=UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 | access-date=January 19, 2007 | archive-date=August 11, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070811063955/http://www.mythsandfacts.org/ReplyOnlineEdition/chapter-8.html | url-status=usurped }}</ref>
}}

Goldberg's role as the UN ambassador during the Six-Day War may have been the reason why [[Sirhan Sirhan]], the assassin of [[Robert F. Kennedy]], also wanted to assassinate Goldberg.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Issenberg |first1=Sasha |title=Slaying gave US a first taste of Mideast terror |url=http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/06/05/slaying_gave_us_a_first_taste_of_mideast_terror/ |access-date=December 3, 2019 |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=June 5, 2008 |archive-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921134158/http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/06/05/slaying_gave_us_a_first_taste_of_mideast_terror/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Subsequent career==

[[File:Gravesite of U.S. Army Major Arthur Goldberg in Section 21, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia on April 24, 2024.jpg|thumb|Grave at Arlington National Cemetery]]

Frustrated with the war in Vietnam, Goldberg resigned from the ambassadorship in 1968 and accepted a senior partnership with the New York law firm [[Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison]]. Longing to return to the bench, Goldberg later claimed that he was [[Earl Warren]]'s preference to succeed him when the chief justice announced his retirement in 1968, but President Johnson selected [[Abe Fortas]] instead.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bernard |last=Schwartz |title=Super Chief: Earl Warren and his Supreme Court |location=New York |publisher=New York University Press |year=1983 |page=720}}</ref> After Fortas's nomination was withdrawn in the face of Senate opposition, Johnson briefly considered naming Goldberg chief justice as a [[recess appointment]] before ruling out the idea.<ref name="Stebenne"/>{{rp|373}} On 15 October 1969, Goldberg was a featured speaker at the [[Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam]] march.<ref>{{cite book |last=Karnow |first=Stanley |title=Vietnam: A History |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1983 |location=London |page=599 |isbn=0-19-507105-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/arthurjgoldbergn0000steb}}{{verify source|date=December 2024|reason=ISBN and URL reference a different book}}</ref>

With the prospect of a return to the Supreme Court closed to him by the election of [[Richard Nixon]], Goldberg contemplated a run for elected office. Initially considering a challenge to [[Charles Goodell]]'s reelection to the United States Senate, he decided to run against [[Governor of New York|New York governor]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]] in [[1970 New York gubernatorial election|1970]].<ref name=JewishJustices /> Though the former justice initially polled well, his campaign was unsuccessful. Goldberg faced accusations of being a "carpetbagger" by the New York media and he faced a contested Democratic primary campaign against [[Howard J. Samuels]].<ref name=JewishJustices /> Although Goldberg won the Democratic primary, his poor skills as a campaigner and lack of knowledge about New York (while campaigning in Manhattan, he mistakenly claimed that he was in Brooklyn), coupled with Rockefeller's formidable advantages, resulted in a 700,000 vote margin of victory for the incumbent Republican.<ref name="Stebenne"/>{{rp|375–8}} At one point in the campaign, Goldberg told a voter, who commented that he wished he was still on the Court "so do I, sometimes."<ref name=JewishJustices /> [[Basil Paterson]] was his running mate as Lt. Governor. Paterson's son, [[David Paterson|David]], later became Governor in 2008.

After his defeat, Goldberg returned to law practice in Washington, D.C., and served as president of the [[American Jewish Committee]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/AGoldberg.html |title=Jewish Virtual Library, Arthur Goldberg. |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-date=June 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629181158/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/AGoldberg.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1972, Goldberg returned to the Supreme Court as a lawyer, representing [[Curt Flood]] in ''[[Flood v. Kuhn]]''. His oral argument was referred to by one observer as "one of the worst arguments I'd ever heard – by one of the smartest men I've ever known..."<ref>Along with Goldberg, Abe Fortas was the only other Warren era justice to later argue a case before that body. Dan Levitt, quoted in Brad Snyder, ''Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports'', p. 281</ref> Under President [[Jimmy Carter]], Goldberg served as United States ambassador to the Belgrade Conference on Human Rights in 1977, and was awarded the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] in 1978.

Goldberg was a member of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]] from 1966 until 1989.

Goldberg died in 1990. As a former member of the [[U.S. Army]] he is buried at [[Arlington National Cemetery]] in [[Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/1995_goldberg.htm |title=U.S. Department of Labor - Labor Hall of Fame - Arthur J. Goldberg |access-date=2009-05-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510074850/https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/1995_goldberg.htm |archive-date=May 10, 2009 |df=mdy }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|United States|Politics}}
* [[Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[John F. Kennedy Supreme Court candidates]]
* [[List of Jewish American jurists]]
* [[List of Jewish United States Cabinet members]]
* [[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2)]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Warren Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Warren Court]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_f0e8 |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3 }}
*{{cite book |last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=(Supreme Court Historical Society, [[Congressional Quarterly]] Books) |year=2001 |isbn=1-56802-126-7}}
*{{cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=[[Chelsea House]] Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
* Goldberg, Arthur J. ''AFL-CIO: Labor United.'' New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
* Goldberg, Arthur J. ''Equal Justice: The Supreme Court in the Warren Era.'' Chicago: [[Northwestern University Press]], 1971. {{ISBN|0 14 00 7324 8}}
* Goldberg, Arthur J. ''The Defenses of Freedom: The Public Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg.'' Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ed. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
*{{cite book |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
*{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
*{{cite book |last=Karnow |first=Stanley |title=Vietnam: A History |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1983 |location=London |isbn=0-19-507105-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/arthurjgoldbergn0000steb }}{{verify source|date=December 2024|reason=ISBN and URL reference a different book}}
*[[David Paterson|Paterson, David]] ''"[[Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity]]."''Skyhorse Publishing. New York, New York, 2020
*{{cite book |last=Stebenne |first=David |title=Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal |url=https://archive.org/details/arthurjgoldbergn0000steb |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-507105-0 }}
*{{cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=[[Garland Publishing]] |year=1994 |location=New York |page=590 |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration }}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*[https://archive.today/20131113095054/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?jfk-space-program JFK to Secretary of Labor, Arthur Goldberg: Missile and Space Programs - End Labor Delays, 1961] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509003131/http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/history/goldberg.htm |title=Biography. U.S. Department of Labor. No date. |date=2006-05-09}}
*[https://www.oyez.org/justices/arthur_j_goldberg/ Oyez, U.S. Supreme Court media, Arthur J. Goldberg.]
*{{webarchive |url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20011116133123/http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/goldberga/goldberg.asp |title=Oral History Interview with Arthur Goldberg, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library |date=2001-11-16}}
*{{C-SPAN|4484}}
*Arthur Goldberg's [[FBI]] files, hosted at the [[Internet Archive]]:
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Goldberg_Arthur_J.-HQ-1 Part 1]
**[https://archive.org/details/foia_Goldberg_Arthur_J.-HQ-2 Part 2]

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Felix Frankfurter]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]|years=1962–1965}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Abe Fortas]]}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[James P. Mitchell|James Mitchell]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Secretary of Labor]]|years=1961–1962}}
{{s-aft|after=[[W. Willard Wirtz|Willard Wirtz]]}}
|-
{{s-dip}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Adlai Stevenson II]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[United States Ambassador to the United Nations]]|years=1965–1968}}
{{s-aft|after=[[George Ball (diplomat)|George Ball]]}}
|-
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Frank D. O'Connor|Frank O'Connor]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[Governor of New York]]|years=[[1970 New York gubernatorial election|1970]]}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=[[Hugh Carey]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Liberal Party of New York|Liberal]] nominee for [[Governor of New York]]|years=[[1970 New York gubernatorial election|1970]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{New York State Democratic Committee}}
{{USSecLabor}}
{{Kennedy cabinet}}
{{LBJohnson cabinet}}
{{USUNambassadors}}
{{SCOTUS Justices}}
{{American Jewish Committee}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldberg, Arthur J.}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American judges]]
[[Category:20th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:20th-century Illinois politicians]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery]]
[[Category:Congress of Industrial Organizations people]]
[[Category:DePaul University alumni]]
[[Category:Diplomats from Chicago]]
[[Category:Illinois Democrats]]
[[Category:Jewish members of the Cabinet of the United States]]
[[Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
[[Category:Kennedy administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Chicago]]
[[Category:Lyndon B. Johnson administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Illinois]]
[[Category:Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni]]
[[Category:Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people]]
[[Category:People of the Office of Strategic Services]]
[[Category:Permanent representatives of the United States to the United Nations]]
[[Category:Politicians from Chicago]]
[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Jewish Committee]]
[[Category:United States Air Force colonels]]
[[Category:United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:United States Air Force reservists]]
[[Category:United States Army colonels]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:United States federal judges appointed by John F. Kennedy]]
[[Category:United States government officials of the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:United States secretaries of labor]]
[[Category:World War II spies for the United States]]