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Elsie Douglas Elsie L. Douglas (December 30, 1901–May 11, 1994) was secretary to two U.S. Supreme Courts Justices, Justice Robert H. Jackson and Justice Felix Frankfurter.

Personal Life
Douglas was married and was the mother of a son who later served in the Pacific theater. She enjoyed playing the piano. She died on May 11, 1994 in Berlin, Maryland at the age of 92.

Professional Life
Between 1944 and 1945, Douglas began working as a secretary for Justice Jackson, who then been sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court for approximately three years. Douglas was a hard worker and a trusted confidante of Jackson. One law clerk provided the following anecdote: “[Jackson] was explaining to me that the filing system he and his secretary, Elsie Douglas, had developed, would make it certain that all of us would always know where the current case file was at all times. Having made this point, he turned to Mrs. Douglas and said, ‘Elsie, by the way, what’s wrong with this filing system anyway?’ Mrs. Douglas replied, with a straight face, ‘In a word, Mr. Justice – you!”

In June 1945, shortly after becoming Jackson’s secretary, Douglas accompanied Jackson to the London Conference, where Jackson met with representatives from the three other Allied Powers, namely France, England, and Russia, in order to draft the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal. The minutes from the London Conference are transcriptions from stenographic notes taken by Douglas; she transcribed everything in English and recorded the words of the French and Russian representatives through the use of translators. In early September 1945, Douglas returned to the United States, but in November 1945, she returned to Europe to provide secretarial assistance to Jackson during the Nuremberg Trials. Earlier that year, Jackson had been appointed by Harry S. Truman as Chief Prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials

While in Germany, Douglas attended the Nuremberg Trials daily and presumably performed various secretarial tasks. Occasionally, during the Trials, Douglas would hand exhibits to Jackson. She shared a billet with Jackson, his son, William, and Jackson’s bodyguard, Moritz Fuchs. The Trial lasted from November 1945 until September 1946, although Jackson turned over the prosecution to Senator Thomas Dodd in August 1946. It is unclear whether Douglas stayed at Nuremberg until the completion of the Trials. However, it is known that Douglas continued working as Jackson’s secretary up until Jackson’s death in 1954.

After Jackson’s death on October 9, 1954, Douglas became secretary to Justice Felix Frankfurter. While it is unclear when she took this position, it appears that Douglas worked for Justice Frankfurter up until he retired from the Supreme Court in 1962 after suffering a stroke. Interestingly, upon Frankfurter’s death in 1965, Frankfurter donated his so-called Court Papers to the Harvard Law School. Pursuant to the terms of his will, Frankfurter granted Douglas the authority to determine the scope of what should and should not be included in the Collection.

Movie Depictions
In 2000, a made-for-TV movie entitled “Nuremberg” was released. Justice Jackson was played by Alec Baldwin, while the role of Elsie Douglas (who was 44 at the time of the Nuremberg Trials) was depicted by a then-29-year-old Jill Hennessey. The movie depicts the Nuremberg Trials primarily from the perspective of Jackson, with the climax of the movie being Jackson’s cross-examination of Hermann Goering. The movie also clearly implies that Jackson and Elsie Douglas had an affair. Throughout the film, Douglas’s character refers to Jackson as “Robert” or “Bob” in the presence of enlisted servicemen, attorneys, and Jackson’s staff. Douglas’s character also provides moral and emotional support to Jackson, particularly as she consoles a defeated Jackson after his first day of interrogating Goering. As the film progresses, so too does the level of intimacy between the two characters. Their on-screen relationship reaches a boiling point in the film on Christmas 1945, when Justice Jackson gives Douglas a bottle of perfume as a Christmas gift and then the two share an intimate kiss.

The Relationship between Douglas and Jackson
The 2000 “Nuremberg” movie along with several other sources allude to a possible affair between Jackson and Douglas. However, it is unclear whether this ever actually occurred. One source indicates that letters written by Francis Biddle, who served as one of the four judges of the Nuremberg Trials, are insightful: “He is, I think, knotted to a second-rate rotten woman, wrote Biddle to his wife, referring to Elsie Douglas: she eats him, flatters him, a common possessive yes-woman, bringing out Bob’s worst, characteristics.”   Notably, however, Biddle and Jackson were not known to be on good terms throughout the Trials when these statements were written.

The Rehnquist Memo
In 1952, former Chief Justice William Rehnquist was serving as a law clerk to Justice Jackson. In response to Brown v. Board of Education, a memorandum, entitled "A Random Thought on Segregation," was written by Rehnquist in support of segregation. In 1971 when Rehnquist was nominated to the Supreme Court and again in 1986 when he was nominated as Chief Justice, Rehnquist contended that he did not write the racist memorandum; instead, it was writte by Justice Jackson and he was merely relaying what Jackson had told him to write. In 1986, Douglas told the Washington Post that by attributing these pro-segregation views to Jackson, Rehnquist had "smeared the reputation of a great Justice." Futhermore, she challenged Rehnquist's contention that Jackson ever told his clerks what to write in their research memorandums. She told Newsweek that Rehnquist's comments were "incredible on its face." In August 1986, she wrote a letter to Senator Edward Kennedy stating: "I have been following the proceedings on the confirmation of Justice William Rehnquist for Chief Justice.  It surprises me every time Justice Rehnquist repeats what he said in 1971, that the views expressed in his 1952 memorandum concerning the segregation case then before the Court were those of Justice Jackson, rather than his own views.  As I said in 1971, when this question first came up, that is a smear of a great man, for whom I served as secretary for many years.  Justice Jackson did not ask his law clerks to express his views.  He expressed his own and they expressed theirs.  That is what happened in this instance."