11 Facts About Alexander Bickel

Alexander Mordecai Bickel was an American legal scholar and expert on the United States Constitution.

Alexander Bickel prepared a historic memorandum for Frankfurter, urging that Brown v Board of Education be reargued.

Alexander Bickel was named Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History in 1966, and Sterling Professor of Law in 1974.

Alexander Bickel was a friend and colleague of Charles Black, another influential scholar of constitutional law.

Alexander Bickel defended President Richard Nixon's order to dismiss special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Alexander Bickel died of cancer on November 8,1974, at his home in Connecticut, at 49 years of age.

Alexander Bickel viewed "private ordering" and the voluntary working-out of problems as generally preferable to legalistic solutions.

Alexander Bickel envisioned the Supreme Court as playing a statesman-like role in national controversies, engaging in dialogue with the other branches of government.

Alexander Bickel's writings addressed such varied topics as constitutionalism and Burkean thought, citizenship, civil disobedience, freedom of speech, moral authority and intellectual thought.

Alexander Bickel has been cited by Chief Justice John Roberts and by Justice Samuel Alito as a major influence and is widely considered one of the most influential constitutional conservatives of the 20th century.

Alexander Bickel inaugurated the DeVane Lecture series at Yale in 1972 where he taught a large class mostly of Yale undergraduates.