Hugo Black

Associate Justic Hugo Black, who served on the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971, is considered one of the court's most influential justices. Black was also the fifth longest-serving justic, a longevity that allowed him to weigh in on the most pivotal legal issues of late 20th century America. Appointed by Franklin Roosevelt in 1937, the same year of fight between the Supreme Court and the administration over the president's controversial "court packing" plan. Black, a former Democratic Senator from Alabama, was an ardent supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal Policies, a deep contrast with the Court's conservative stance at the time. Despite his support for these liberal policies, Black urged his fellow justices to use "judicial restraint", meaning that the Court should separtate itself from lawmaking. Black tooka literal, also called "texualist" approach to his interpretation of the Constitution. A prime example of this viewpoint was Black's refusal to support the abolishment of the death penalty, arguing that the Fifth and Fourteenth Amedments references to the "taking of life" were evidence of the legality of capital punishment. Black was also a prominent defender of civil liberties, particulary in the case of Chambers v. Florida. A black man, Chambers, was one of 30 to 40 black men accused of murdering an elderly white man in Florida. Chambers was convicted of murder along with three other men, whose "confessions" were most likely the result of intimidation by authorities. The case was appealed to the court in 1940, which voted to overturn the conviction. Justic Black wrote the majority opinion for the case. In it, he wrote that "the determination to preserve an accussed's right to procedural due process sprang in large part from knowledge...that the rights and liberties people accussed of crimes could not be safetly entrusted to secret inquisitorial processes".

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Black
http://www.infoplease.com/cig/supreme-court/hugo-black-1937-1971.html