Tom Campbell Clark Biography

Tom Campbell Clark served as both U.S. attorney general and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Clark, who began his legal career as a conservative Texan, became more liberal over time, voting with other members of the Warren Court to provide criminal defendants with greater constitutional rights.

Clark was born on September 23, 1899, in Dallas, Texas. His college studies at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) were interrupted by service in the Army during World War I. After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas and earned his law degree there in 1922. After five years in private practice, Clark became the district attorney of Dallas and soon was immersed in Texas politics. Clark's political connections eventually led him to Washington, D.C., where in 1937 he became special assistant to the attorney general. Clark managed several department bureaus but soon specialized in antitrust law. By 1942, he had risen to head the Antitrust Division. His focus shifted when he was transferred in 1945 to become the head of the Criminal Division.

During World War II, Clark coordinated the interning of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry, a program that the Supreme Court upheld but later generations viewed as unconstitutional. He also became a confidante of Senator Harry S. Truman, who conducted Senate hearings on war production. These hearings uncovered fraud by military contractors and elevated Truman's national reputation to the point that President Franklin Roosevelt named him his running mate in 1944. After Truman's election as Vice-President, Clark's fortunes began to rise again. When Truman became president in 1945, following the death of Roosevelt, he moved to fill his cabinet with his own people. He named Clark attorney general that same year.

Clark served from 1945 to 1949, during a time when fear of Communism led to widespread investigations of subversive individuals and organizations. Clark embraced this effort, which led to the prosecution of the leaders of the American Communist party. Nevertheless, in the 1948 presidential election, Republicans attacked Truman for not doing enough to stop Communism in the U.S. Clark mounted a strong defense of Truman's record, which contributed to Truman's surprise reelection.

Truman rewarded Clark with an appointment to the Supreme Court in 1949. During the 1950s, Clark tended to vote along conservative lines. However, by the 1960s he had become more liberal, helping to create a majority under Chief Justice Earl Warren that radically changed American law. In 1961, Clark wrote the majority opinion in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081, that broadened the reach of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In this case, the Court extended the exclusionary rule to include evidence illegally seized by state law enforcement officials. Clark's opinion led to changes in police procedures but it also started an ongoing debate over the need for such a blanket rule.

Clark retired from the Court in 1967. He made the decision to pave the way for the appointment of his son, Ramsey Clark, to the office of attorney general. Clark wished to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, as the attorney general regularly appears before the Court. He served as a retired judge on all eleven of the circuit courts of appeal after leaving the Court. Clark died on June 13, 1977.