American lawyer
James Lee Rankin
(July 8, 1907 ? June 26, 1996
[1]
) was the 31st
United States Solicitor General
.
Early life
[
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Rankin was born in
Hartington, Nebraska
, the son of Herman P. and Lois Gable Rankin. He attended public schools and earned his undergraduate and law degree from the
University of Nebraska College of Law
.
[2]
In 1930 Rankin was admitted to the Nebraska bar and began practicing law in
Lincoln
. In 1935, he became a partner at his firm, where he worked for more than 20 years.
Career
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Rankin served as
United States Solicitor General
from 1956 to 1961. In 1952, Rankin managed
Dwight Eisenhower
's
president campaign
in
Nebraska
and in 1953, Eisenhower selected Rankin to serve as
United States Assistant Attorney General
.
[3]
In 1953, Rankin was appointed assistant attorney general in charge of the
Office of Legal Counsel
. In this capacity, Rankin may best be remembered for arguing in favor of the black plaintiffs in
Brown v. Board of Education
(1954),
[4]
advocating that the doctrine of
separate-but-equal
facilities for blacks and whites was unconstitutional. After the
Supreme Court's
Brown
ruling, Rankin argued before the court that the effort to
desegregate
schools should take place gradually in order to avoid violence. Accordingly, he suggested the plan by which local school districts submitted desegregation plans to
federal judges
in their states.
Rankin argued many other important cases before the Supreme Court. He was instrumental in resolving conflicting claims among Western states to the
Colorado River
and in establishing a balance of federal and state jurisdictions in offshore
oil
drilling.
On August 14, 1956, Rankin was appointed U.S. Solicitor General. In response to lawsuits in many states arising out of legislative
reapportionment
fights, he developed the
Justice Department
's position that led to the principle of
one man, one vote
. After serving as solicitor general from August 1956 to January 1961, Rankin represented the
American Civil Liberties Union
in advancing the landmark case
Gideon v. Wainwright
,
[5]
which solidified the right of an indigent person accused of a crime to have legal counsel at public expense.
Following President
John F. Kennedy's assassination
and the appointment of
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
to serve as the chairman of the
President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, Rankin was selected by Warren to serve as general counsel in the inquiry that concluded that
Lee Harvey Oswald
had acted alone in killing Kennedy. According to author Edward Epstein, Rankin was primarily an administrator and lent a guiding hand in shaping the investigation. The 14-man legal staff was divided into seven two-man teams, each of which handled a separate area of the investigation and contributed a chapter to the commission's final report. The staff lawyer whom Epstein credited with redrafting and editing the commission's voluminous report was
Norman Redlich
.
After his work with the Warren Commission, Rankin practiced law in
New York City
until the 1970s, working seven years as the
New York City Corporation Counsel
(1966-1972).
Later life
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]
Upon retirement, Rankin and his wife of 63 years Gertrude moved to
Weston, Connecticut
, where they had a summer home. In 1993, they relocated to
Los Gatos, California
.
Rankin died on June 26, 1996, in
Santa Cruz, California
.
References
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]
External links
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]
This article incorporates
public domain material
from websites or documents of the
Solicitor General of the United States
.
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Acting officeholders shown in
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