He is known as a "major architect of civil liberties law,"[1] "arguably the foremost First Amendment scholar of his generation,"[2] and "pillar of the Bill of Rights.
With law firm colleague Walter Pollak served the defense team that helped appeal convictions of the "Scottsboro Boys" in Powell v. Alabama (1932).
[1][2][3][6][7][8] In July 1933,[8] Emerson joined the New Deal of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by serving at the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Social Security Board (1936[8]), back to the NLRB in the summer of 1937, becoming assistant general counsel in charge of their review section in November 1937 and associated general counsel in August 1939.
[10][11] In 1948, Emerson ran for governor of Connecticut on the ticket of the 1948 Progressive Party, whose US presidential candidate was former US Vice President Henry A.
[14] In 1950, UN Ambassador Aleš Bebler planned to invite Henry A Wallace and Thomas I. Emerson to his country Yugoslavia.
[7] Thomas I. Emerson died age 83 on June 19, 1991, of a stroke at the Yale Health Services Center in New Haven.
[1][4][7] When Political and Civil Rights in the United States was published (during the McCarthy Era, renowned American education philosopher Robert Maynard Hutchins wrote, "This is the only comprehensive collection of cases and materials on the most important subject in the world today.
"[18] Works at the Library of Congress and cited in current references to this entry: (See "Thomas I. Emerson: Pillar of the Bill of Rights" for full bibliography.