Biome Erickson

Biography

Erickson (biography):

History Erickson, Joseph(1875-1946) in the 2nd District of Virginia and served in World War I from November 1918 until April 1919. He was a Democrat who joined the New England Union League, served as Postmaster from 1936 to 1941, and went to the Supreme Court in 1953.

Erickson is my favorite judge on the Court. He was a conscientious objector and is basically a moderate Republican. He was a real friend of Roosevelt during the investigations, and made that contribution to our country, because he was not on any committees that mattered to him. He was the chairman of the district court, so he was in a position to learn our Constitution from us, and he did, and this helped him many times on the bench. He had a very conservative view of the judge bench, and could be very harsh with people who were sitting on a jury. He wanted everybody to get in the jury room and give evidence in the jury room, so he had a very hard fought and hard lined judge.

I used to think that he was tough on people. I think he was very fair and thought clearly and was fair to both sides. He did not try to be neutral, he made a decision out of the belief in the Constitution that the trial was fair, and he fought his client on every point. But they were both right when they got in the elevator in the Court Building in downtown Washington, either before or after a jury convicted the other side.

They could come out and get upset now and say they would do it again.

Later on Erickson retired, but there are people still researching his life for me.

In 1941 when John Edgar Hoover moved with his staff into the J. Edgar Hoover Building, he secured the best use of the building and made it a place of work.

I once helped a large building and office party move from my office. They moved into the basement. And I said, "This is a great facility. I bet you can get insurance coverage for your whole building and office. I'll tell you why you can. This building has an incredibly large tax credit for the stock sale, and it's tax-free for twenty years." and they knew that.