Albert Levitt | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Levitt in 1937 | |
| Judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands | |
| In office October 17, 1935 – July 31, 1936 | |
| President | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | T. Webber Wilson |
| Succeeded by | George P. Jones |
| Member of the United States Assay Commission for 1921 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 14, 1887 Woodbine, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | June 18, 1968 (aged 81) Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Other political affiliations |
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| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service |
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| Rank | Lieutenant (Chaplain) |
Albert Levitt (March 14, 1887 – June 18, 1968) was an American judge, law professor, Unitarian minister, attorney and government official. He unsuccessfully ran many times for public office in Connecticut, California and New Hampshire, generally receiving only a small percentage of the vote. While a judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands in 1935, he ordered that women there must be allowed to register and vote.
Born in Maryland, Levitt joined the U.S. Army at age 17. He then went to seminary and spent several years as a student, eventually gaining degrees from three Ivy League universities. After World War I broke out, he twice served—once in the ambulance corps for the French, and once as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. In the latter capacity, he was wounded and gassed.
After the war, Levitt became a lawyer. While at Harvard Law School, he was instrumental in the drafting of the Equal Rights Amendment. He then began a series of short-term positions teaching law. Eventually, he settled with his wife, the suffragist Elsie Hill, in Connecticut, and involved himself in politics. Though he was never elected to office, the small faction he led affected the outcome in several races, helping to elect Democrat Wilbur Cross as governor in 1930, and helping to defeat him in 1938. In general, his actions aided the Democrats against the Republicans, and he was rewarded for this with a position in the Justice Department under Franklin Delano Roosevelt beginning in 1933. Attorney General Homer Cummings appointed him a judge in 1935, and arranged for him to resume his work at the Justice Department after he resigned from that position the following year. He publicly broke with the Roosevelt administration in 1937, and lost his government job.
After leaving the Justice Department, Levitt challenged the appointment of Hugo Black to the United States Supreme Court under the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution; in its decision, Ex parte Levitt, the court refused to consider his claims, stating that he lacked legal standing to bring them to court. In the early 1940s, he moved to California, and began to run as a fringe candidate in Republican primaries, including in the 1950 United States Senate election in California, finishing sixth out of six, behind the winner, Richard Nixon. He also formed the belief that the Roman Catholic Church was a great danger to American democracy and, in his campaigns, warned against its influence. He died in 1968.