Frank E. Holman

Who was Frank E. Holman?

Frank Ezekiel Holman was an American attorney who after his election as president of the American Bar Association in 1948 led an effort to amend the United States Constitution to limit the power of treaties and executive agreements. Holman's work led to the Bricker Amendment.

Holman was born in Sandy, Utah. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1908 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study law at the University of Oxford. Admitted to the Washington bar in 1911 and the Utah bar in 1912, he was dean of the University of Utah Law School from 1913 to 1915, when he began a law practice in Salt Lake City.

In 1924, he moved to Seattle, Washington, to practice law until his retirement in 1961. Holman argued cases in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Holman was active in legal organizations. He was president of the Seattle Bar Association in 1941 and the Washington State Bar Association in 1945. He was elected president of the American Bar Association in 1948 and traveled extensively to warn Americans of the dangers of "treaty law".

In 1953, the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors awarded him their "First Citizen" award.