William Brennan

William Brennan enters the account at the point where Jimmy Hoffa’s Chattanooga jury-tampering conviction reached the U.S. Supreme Court. A liberal justice whose vote the Teamsters sought to influence, Brennan became the target of an alleged threat directed not at him alone but at his brother’s brewery. The episode places pressure outside the courtroom beside the constitutional question the Court was asked to decide.

The Appeal and Its Stakes

Hoffa’s appeal raised a question about the right to counsel: whether the government had violated that right by placing Edward Grady Partin near Hoffa during the Nashville Test Fleet trial. The Court agreed to hear the case amid the period the account describes as the criminal law revolution, when constitutional protections were being newly defined. After oral argument, the prosecution team was uncertain how the justices would rule.

Pressure on Brennan’s Family

According to Walter Sheridan’s account, a Teamsters official approached Brennan’s brother, who owned a brewery, and warned that the business would be shut down and never reopen if Brennan did not vote the right way in Hoffa’s case. The book presents this as an attempt to pressure the justice through a family member and a vulnerable business interest. It does not identify the Teamsters official or say that Brennan changed his position because of the threat.

The Court’s Decision

The Court ruled against Hoffa on the merits. Brennan joined the majority opinion written by Potter Stewart, while Chief Justice Earl Warren dissented and called the government’s clandestine use of Partin an affront to the fairness of federal law enforcement. The contrast is central to Brennan’s limited but consequential role: he was reportedly subjected to strong-arm pressure, yet the account gives no indication that the threat determined his vote.