The Brandeis Brief is a legal document that was composed and presented to the United States Supreme Court in March of 1938. The brief was authored by the renowned American lawyer, Louis Brandeis, and was submitted in the case of United States v. Carolene Products Co. The Brandeis Brief was instrumental in reshaping the Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the scope of judicial review of Congressional action.
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, states that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In United States v. Carolene Products Co., the Court was called upon to decide whether a federal law prohibiting the sale of filled milk in interstate commerce was unconstitutional.
In his brief, Louis Brandeis argued that the Court should not apply a strict scrutiny analysis when reviewing a law enacted by Congress. Rather, he argued that the Court should defer to Congress’s judgment unless the law was “clearly arbitrary or unreasonable, having no substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, or any other legitimate objects of government.” This was a departure from the Court’s previous decisions, which had applied strict scrutiny to every law enacted by Congress.
The Court adopted Brandeis’s argument and held that the law in question was constitutional. The Court’s decision in United States v. Carolene Products Co. is now known as the “Brandeis Brief Doctrine.” This doctrine has been cited numerous times in subsequent Supreme Court decisions and is still the primary standard for judicial review of Congressional action.
The Brandeis Brief has been credited with paving the way for the Court’s modern approach to judicial review of Congressional action. It is recognized as an important document in the development of constitutional law and will continue to be cited in Supreme Court decisions for years to come.
References
Brandeis, L. (1938). United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144.
Curtin, J. (2021). The Brandeis Brief: How It Influenced Constitutional Law. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/brandeis-brief-4147373
Kavanaugh, B. (2017). Reflections on the Brandeis Brief. Harvard Law Review, 130(7), 2060-2077. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2886047