John William Bricker (September 6, 1893March 22, 1986) was an American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator and the 54th

governor of Ohio A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. He was also the Republican nominee for Vice President in

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

. Born in

Madison County, Ohio Madison County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,824. Its county seat is London. The county is named for James Madison, President of the United States and was es ...

, Bricker attended Ohio State University and began a legal practice in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. He also served in the United States Army during World War I. He held various public offices between 1920 and 1937, including the position of Ohio Attorney General. Bricker served three terms as Governor of Ohio from 1939 to 1945. Bricker was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944. He was

Thomas E. Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...

's running mate on the Republican ticket in the 1944 election, campaigning against the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's judicial nominees. The Republican ticket was defeated by the

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

ticket of Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Bricker won election to the Senate in 1946. He introduced the Bricker Amendment, which would have limited the president's power to make treaties. Though the Bricker Amendment received support from some members of both parties, it was not passed by Congress. Bricker won re-election in 1952 but was narrowly defeated by

Stephen M. Young Stephen Marvin Young (May 4, 1889December 1, 1984) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Ohio from 1959 until 1971. Life and career Young was born o ...

in 1958. After leaving office, Bricker resumed the practice of law and died in 1986.

Early life and education

Bricker was born on a farm near Mount Sterling in Madison County in south central Ohio. He was the son of Laura (née King) and Lemuel Spencer Bricker. He attended Ohio State University at

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

, where he divided his time between the debating team, the varsity baseball team, and the Delta Chi Fraternity. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio State in 1916 and from its law school in 1920, he was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in 1917 and began his legal practice in Columbus in 1920.

Public service

During World War I, Bricker served as first lieutenant and

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

in the United States Army in 1917 and 1918. He was subsequently the

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

for Grandview Heights, Ohio, from 1920 to 1928, assistant Attorney General of Ohio from 1923 to 1927, a member of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio from 1929 to 1932, and Attorney General of Ohio from 1933 to 1937. He was elected governor for three two-year terms, serving from 1939 to 1945, each time winning with a greater margin of victory. Bricker espoused a stance against centralized government, preferring to increase involvement in state and local governments, and made this known in his inaugural address as Governor: Bricker was the

Republican nominee for vice president, running with

presidential President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...

nominee

, the

governor of New York The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has ...

who was nine years Bricker's junior. The Republicans lost handily to the Democratic ticket of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. In that campaign, Bricker proved to be a tireless campaigner, visiting thirty-one states and making 173 speeches, including 28 over a six-day period. His final remarks came on radio on election eve from the governor's office in Columbus, when he declared: "Not only has the

depleted our resources, recklessly spent our money, but it has undermined the very spiritual foundations of our government." Though most of his campaigning was in New England, the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

, and the West, Bricker even visited the then-historically and -heavily Democratic state of Texas, where in Dallas, he called Franklin Roosevelt "a front for the

Hillman Hillman was a British automobile marque created by the Hillman-Coatalen Company, founded in 1907, renamed the Hillman Motor Car Company in 1910. The company was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England. Before 1907 the company had b ...

Browder Browder may refer to: People *Andrew Browder (1931–2019), American mathematician * Aurelia Browder (1919–1971), African-American civil rights activist * Ben Browder (born 1962), American actor and writer * Bill Browder (born 1964), Hermitage C ...

Communist Party," referring to the respective leaders of the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

and the Communist Party of the United States of America.David Jordan, p. 295 In 1946, Bricker was elected to the United States Senate. He was re-elected in 1952, serving from January 3, 1947, to January 3, 1959. Governor Dewey was the Republican presidential nominee again in 1948, but Senator Bricker was not his running mate. Dewey chose instead Governor

Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presided over a major shift in American constitution ...

of California in the hope that the 1948 ticket would carry California, which the Dewey-Bricker ticket had failed to do. The Dewey-Warren ticket also lost California, and the absence of Bricker on the second ticket may have been a factor in Dewey's failure to win Bricker's home state of Ohio again. Bricker campaigned with Warren in 1944 in Sacramento, where Bricker attacked the politics of war-time rationing; then in San Francisco Bricker charged that Roosevelt had packed the U.S. judiciary with liberal jurists hostile to the Constitution. However, even if Dewey had carried both California and Ohio in 1948, the two large states would have been insufficient to elect him President in that second campaign. Bricker's Senate service is best remembered for his attempts to amend the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

to limit the President's treaty-making powers (the Bricker Amendment). He was the chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce during the

83rd Congress The 83rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 1953, until January 3, 1955, during the last two weeks of the Truman administration, with ...

. On July 12, 1947, a former Capitol police officer, William Louis Kaiser, fired shots at Senator Bricker as he boarded the underground subway from the Senate office building to the Capitol. The two shots, fired at close range, narrowly missed their target. Kaiser stated he was "trying to refresh" Bricker's memory. Kaiser had served on the police force as a protege of Bricker's predecessor in the Senate and had complained of losing substantial money on Columbus real estate. An investigation concluded that Kaiser may have fired blanks or else purposely missed Bricker. Bricker voted in favor of the

Civil Rights Act of 1957 The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwigh ...

. In 1958,

ran for the Senate against the incumbent Bricker. Bricker seemed invincible, but Young capitalized on widespread public opposition to the proposed "right to work" amendment to Ohio's constitution, which Bricker had endorsed. Few thought that Young, 70 at the time, could win; even members of his own party had doubts, particularly Ohio's other senator, Democrat

Frank J. Lausche Frank John Lausche (; November 14, 1895 – April 21, 1990) was an American Democratic politician from Ohio. He served as the 47th mayor of Cleveland and the 55th and 57th governor of Ohio, and also served as a United States Senator from Ohio ...

. In an upset amid a national Democratic trend, Young defeated Bricker by 52 to 48 percent. Bricker then retired from public life.

Professional life and death

In 1945, Bricker founded the Columbus law firm now known as

Bricker & Eckler John William Bricker (September 6, 1893March 22, 1986) was an American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator and the 54th governor of Ohio. He was also the Republican nominee for Vice President in 1944. Born in Madison Co ...

. The firm now has additional offices in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Marietta, Barnesville, and Lebanon. It is now one of the ten largest firms in the state of Ohio. The firm has maintained an office and conference room in Bricker's honor in its Columbus office featuring memorabilia from Bricker's political career. He was married to the former Harriet Day. After leaving the Senate, John Bricker resumed the practice of law. He died in Columbus on March 22, 1986 at the age of 92 and is interred at Green Lawn Cemetery.

Miscellaneous

* Bricker Hall on the Ohio State University campus is named for him. The building currently serves as the home of many of the university administrative units, including the Office of the Board of Trustees and President Dr.

Michael V. Drake Michael Vincent Drake (born July 9, 1950) is an American university administrator and physician who is the 21st president of the University of California. From 2014 to June 2020, he was the 15th president of Ohio State University. From 2005 to 2 ...

. Bricker was a member of the OSU Board of Trustees from 1948 to 1969. * The Bricker Building at the Ohio Expo Center (site of the annual Ohio State Fair and many other events) is named for him. * The

John W. Bricker Federal Building The John W. Bricker Federal Building is a federal office building in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The structure was designed in the Brutalist architecture style and was built in 1977 to house federal offices. It has seven stories, and is part of a fa ...

in downtown Columbus is named for him. * In

Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...

's 1962 novel '' The Man in the High Castle'', set in an alternate timeline, Bricker succeeded

John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician and lawyer from History of Texas, Texas who ...

as the 33rd President of the United States in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

. * Bricker intervened in the 1956 deportation of Dr. Peter Tchen, father of Tina Tchen, former Time's Up CEO and Chief of Staff to

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

, by introducing a bill to grant him permanent residency.

References

External links

Former Capitol Policeman Shoots at Senator
- Ghosts of DC blog

* ttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18793/john-w_-bricker Grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Bricker, John William 1893 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American politicians Burials at Green Lawn Cemetery (Columbus, Ohio) Republican Party governors of Ohio Lawyers from Columbus, Ohio Military personnel from Ohio Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni Ohio Attorneys General Ohio State Buckeyes baseball players Ohio State University trustees Old Right (United States) People from Grandview Heights, Ohio People from Madison County, Ohio Politicians from Columbus, Ohio Republican Party (United States) vice presidential nominees Republican Party United States senators from Ohio United States Army chaplains United States Army officers Candidates in the 1944 United States presidential election 1944 United States vice-presidential candidates World War I chaplains 20th-century American lawyers American anti-communists 20th-century American clergy United States Army personnel of World War I