No Bidders for President’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ Letter Opposing Louis Brandeis Court Nod

A letter from former President William Howard Taft attacking the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis to the U.S. Supreme Court in thinly veiled anti-Semitic terms may be of historic value, but apparently not $15,000 worth.

That sum was the opening bid set by the Nate D. Sanders auction house in Los Angeles for the 1916 document, but by the April 28 deadline no bids had been received.

Taft’s epistle sheds light on the state of anti-Semitism at the time in the most “respectable” circles. In addition, the episode provides an interesting parallel to the fight over President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, another Jewish lawyer, to the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.