From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thurman Arnold (June 2, 1891 – November 7, 1969) was an iconoclastic Washington, D.C. lawyer. He was best known for his trust-busting campaign as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Department of Justice. Arnold launched numerous studies to support the antitrust efforts. The Roosevelt administration later de-emphasized antitrust enforcements, for the stated purpose of allowing corporations to concentrate on contributing to victory in World War II.

Before coming to Washington in 1938, Arnold was a professor at Yale Law School, where he took part in the legal realism movement, and published two books: The Symbols of Government (1935) and The Folklore of Capitalism (1937). A few years later, he published The Bottlenecks of Business (1940).

In 1943, Arnold was appointed as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, succeeding Wiley B. Rutledge, who had been promoted to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although it had some responsibility for review of decisions by federal administrative agencies, during Arnold's tenure the court's primary role was reviewing decisions of local trial courts involving routine civil and criminal matters arising in Washington, D.C.. Arnold was never happy during his two years on the court, resigning after only two years on the bench. As an explanation of his decision, he told observers he "would rather be speaking to damn fools than listening to damn fools." He returned to private practice where, along with Paul Porter and Abe Fortas, he co-founded the firm known today as Arnold & Porter.

Thurman was born in the ranch town of Laramie, Wyoming. He began his university studies at Wabash College, but transferred to and graduated from Princeton. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1914. He served in World War I, and worked briefly in Chicago before returning to Laramie, where he was mayor from 1923-1924.

Thurman married his lifelong partner Frances Longan Arnold on September 4, 1917. They had two children, Thurman Jr. and George, both of whom enjoyed successful careers in the law. George married and raised a family with Elen Pearson, daughter of columnist Drew Pearson and granddaughter of Cissy Patterson, owner the Washington Times-Herald.

• Gene M. Gressley. "Thurman Arnold, Antitrust, and the New Deal, " The Business History Review, Vol. 38, No. 2, (Summer, 1964), pp. 214-231 online at JSTOR
• Wilson D. Miscamble, "Thurman Arnold Goes to Washington: A Look at Antitrust Policy in the Later New Deal," The Business History Review, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), pp. 1-15 online at JSTOR
• Spencer Weber Waller. Thurman Arnold: A Biography. (2005) ISBN 0-8147-9392-4

• Arnold, Thurman. The Bottlenecks of Business. ISBN 1-58798-085-1
• Arnold, Thurman. The Folklore of Capitalism. ISBN 1-58798-025-8
• Arnold, Thurman. The Symbols of Government.
• Arnold, Thurman. Voltaire and the Cowboy: The Letters of Thurman Arnold . ISBN 0-87081-073-1

• Arnold & Porter