John Paul Frank was an American lawyer, scholar and historian involved in landmark civil rights, school desegregation, and criminal procedure cases before the United States Supreme Court.

As a lawyer, Frank helped shape the argument in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case and represented Ernesto Miranda in the Unites States Supreme Court. Frank advised Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., who argued the Brown case. Frank wrote eleven books, including a study of the Supreme Court and a biography of Justice Hugo L. Black, for whom he had been a clerk. Frank served as counsel to the Arizona Democratic Party for over 30 years and was active in State Democratic Party politics.

In 1969, Frank crossed an ideological divide to defend Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. after being nominated to the Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon. Frank said that Judge Haynsworth’s ownership of an interest in a company that did business with a party to a lawsuit before him did not raise ethical questions.

Johnnie M. Walters was an American lawyer and civil servant who served as a United States Assistant Attorney General from 1969 to 1971 and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from August 6, 1971, to April 30, 1973.

A 1942 Furman University graduate, Walters worked for five years in the office of the chief counsel for the Internal Revenue Service. He then worked for Texaco in New York City before moving to Greenville, South Carolina in 1961, where he established a private practice as a tax attorney. Walters was chosen as Assistant Attorney General (Tax Division) in 1969 serving until 1971. As Assistant Attorney General, Walters was also actively involved in the nomination processes of several Supreme Court and District Court judges. Walters kept files on the Haynsworth nomination and had helped prepare witnesses who appeared before the committee.

Walters was asked to be the IRS Commissioner in 1971 and served until 1973. Walters then practiced law in Richmond, Virginia for five years, then returned to Greenville and joined a law firm there. He retired from law practice at age 77 but continued to do financial consulting until he was 85.

Clement Furman Haynsworth, Jr., was born on October 30, 1912, in Greenville, South Carolina. His father was Clement Furman Haynsworth, an attorney and the great-grandson of Richard Furman, namesake of Furman University.

Haynsworth graduated summa cum laude from Furman University in 1933 and received a degree in law from Harvard in 1936. After completing his degree, he joined his father’s law firm in Greenville, becoming senior partner in 1946. Haynsworth was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, in 1957, becoming chief circuit judge in 1964. President Richard Nixon nominated Judge Haynsworth to be an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court on August 21, 1969 to a seat vacated by Justice Abe Fortas. After eight days of hearings and a 10 to 7 vote in favor of Haynsworth in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the full Senate rejected the nomination by a vote of 55 to 45 on November 21, 1969.

Haynsworth remained a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court, assuming senior status on April 6, 1981, which he retained until his death in Greenville on November 22, 1989.