Welcome
to Continental Lodge #287's Home Page. We Fraternally invite you to
view our Communication and visit us on our regular meeting night. We
meet on the first Wednesday of the month at Grand Lodge, 71 West 23rd
Street in the Renaissance Room on the 6th Floor at 7:30PM. Our
Brothers meet for dinner prior to the meetings. Check the
Communication for location and feel free to join us..... Dutch of
course!!
Be Well, God Bless and let our Brotherly Love Spread Around the
World!!!
If you are not already a member
of our ancient & honorable fraternity, and would like additional
information, please contact this Lodg or any of our fraternity.
Although we cannot directly solicit members, we will be pleased to
respond to your interest by answering your questions and will gladly
provide a petition at your request.
"Please Note that this is a Large Section and will Take
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Noah Swayne was the first of Lincoln's five appointments to the Supreme Court. Swayne
satisfied Lincoln's criteria for appointment: commitment to the Union, slavery opponent, geographically
correct. Swayne's left his native Virginia at age 19 because he was hostile to slavery. He
settled in Ohio and later served there in the state legislature. He was appointed United
States Attorney for Ohio by President Andrew Jackson. He retained his opposition to
slavery and joined the newly created Republican party in 1855. Swayne's close personal
friend was Justice John McLean who suggested that Lincoln appoint Swayne as his successor.
When McLean died, Swayne mustered support for the appointment to his friend's position.
Swayne was an undistinguished justice. He wrote few major opinions and served as an extra
vote in important majority and dissenting positions articulated by others. He stayed well
beyond his time; he deteriorated mentally and physically while still on the bench. Though
he lacked intellectual leadership, Swayne coveted the position of Chief Justice. He
campaigned aggressively and unsuccessfully for the spot in 1864 and in 1873. Return to Last Page
William Burnham Woods grew up in central Ohio and attended Western Reserve College. He
graduated from Yale in 1845 and two years later passed the Ohio bar. He practiced law in his
hometown of Newark, Ohio where he also served as mayor. From this political perch, Woods
was elected to the state legislature and was soon chosen its Speaker. Woods was a
committed Democrat and resisted the growing Republican tide. At first, he opposed the
Civil War but then acknowledged the necessity of a Northern victory. He joined the Union
army and participated in the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg. After the War, Woods settled
in Alabama where he returned to law practice and took up cotton farming. Now a Republican,
Woods was appointed by Grant to sit on the 5th Judicial Circuit. President Hayes appointed
Woods to the Supreme Court in 1880, following 11 years on the circuit bench. This would be
the first appointment from a Confederate state since 1853. (Woods was succeeded by Lucius
Lamar who would be the first ex-Confederate on the High Court.) Return to Last Page
Levi Woodbury came from old New England stock. He graduated Dartmouth College and
briefly attended law school in Litchfield, Connecticut. He abandoned law school for private study in
an apprenticeship. However, his formal studies made Woodbury the first Supreme Court
justice to have attended law school.
Woodbury served New Hampshire in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S.
Senate. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson during
Jackson's crusade against the Bank of the United States.
While on the Court, Woodbury sought the 1848 presidential nomination. He was a
candidate again for the 1852 election but he died early in the selection process. Return to Last Page
Fred Vinson was the son of a rural Kentucky county jailer and his wife. He worked his
way through college and law school and entered the practice of law in Kentucky at the age of 21. Vinson
was a congressman for 8 terms and served on the influential Ways and Means Committee
during much of the New Deal. He resigned his House seat to accept an appointment by
Roosevelt to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. After five years on
the bench, Vinson resigned to accept an appointment in the Roosevelt administration as
head of the Office of Economic Stabilization. Vinson later succeeded former justice James
Byrnes as head of the Office of War Mobilization. Vinson became a trusted advisor to
President Harry Truman, who appointed him Secretary of the Treasury. Truman later
nominated Vinson to the position of Chief Justice. Vinson avoided the announcement of
sweeping constitutional principles. He resisted overturning prior decisions. Though he
helped chip away at the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial separation, he
resisted a head-on confrontation of the issue in Brown v. Board of Education. Vinson's
sudden death from a heart attack in 1953 paved the way for the unanimous opinion crafted
by Vinson's successor, Earl Warren. Return to Last Page
Though born in Virginia, Robert Trimble spent most of his life in Kentucky where he
studied and read law. After a short stint in the Kentucky House of Representatives, Trimble took a seat on
the state Court of Appeals. He resigned 8 years later stating that the compensation ($1000
a year) was inadequate. Trimble devoted his energy to private practice. By 1817, he was a
rich man and owned several slaves. With his financial security assured, Trimble accepted
Madison's nomination to the federal trial court in Kentucky. Eight years later, John
Quincy Adams named Trimble, a staunch nationalist, as his only appointment to the Supreme
Court. Trimble's tenure was brief: 27 months. He was the Court's voice in 15 opinions. His
only constitutional opinion gave rise to Chief Justice John Marshall's only dissent. Return to Last Page
Thomas Todd was born and raised in Virginia. At 16, he served in the Revolutionary War.
Following his graduation from Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University), Todd tutored the
daughters of a distant relative in return for room, board, and law instruction. Todd later
moved to the area of Virginia that would become Kentucky. He was intimately involved in
the statehood issue and was appointed by Kentucky's first governor to serve on the state's
highest court. In 1807, Congress increased the membership of the Supreme Court from five
to six. Jefferson selected Todd for the seat because of his familiarity with land law
problems, especially those arising from the newly created western circuit of the Supreme
Court (Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee). Todd served for 18 years but did not write a single
constitutional opinion. In fact, he wrote a total of fourteen opinions, and most of those
involved land law issues. He missed five entire Court sessions on account of personal or
health issues. Return to Last
Page
A classmate of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton, Mahlon Pitney served in Republican
political office in Congress and in New Jersey. Though he aspired to be governor, he was
appointed to the state's highest court ending his electoral ambitions. He served on that
court for 20 years, eventually to become its chancellor. He was the last of President
William Howard Taft's appointments to the Court. Taft himself was later appointed chief
justice of the Supreme Court on which Pitney still served and criticized him as a weak
member. Return to Last Page
William Paterson emigrated with his family to New Jersey from Ireland when he was two.
Paterson was educated at Princeton and then read law, opening his own practice in 1769.
Paterson held political office in New Jersey and was chosen as a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
where he introduced the New Jersey Plan calling for equal political representation for the
states. The idea merged into the Great Compromise. Paterson signed the draft Constitution
and advocated its ratification in New Jersey. The New Jersey legislature elected Paterson
to the United States Senate in 1789. He resigned his seat in 1790 to become New Jersey's
governor. George Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1793. During his tenure,
Paterson was a firm advocate of national supremacy over state government. When Oliver
Ellsworth resigned as chief justice in 1800, many senators thought that the position ought
to go to Paterson. Adams shunned that counsel and nominated John Marshall as his choice.
Paterson was injured in a carriage accident in 1803 and never fully recovered. He died
three years later. Return to Last Page
Samuel Nelson spent his youth in upstate New York. Though he planned a career in the
ministry, he changed his mind after graduating from Middlebury College and studied law instead. He
practiced law and was active in political affairs. He held state judicial commissions for
22 years before his elevation to the Supreme Court in 1845.
Nelson's appointment came as a complete surprize. President Tyler had failed in two
attempts to fill this vacancy (to replace Smith Thompson); the Senate rejected both
choices. Nelson, a Democrat, was viewed as a careful and noncontroversial judge who would
be more appealing to the Democratically-controlled Senate, and indeed he was.
Nelson spent 27 unspectacular years on the nation's highest court. To the extent that
he achieved notoriety, Nelson (along with Justice John A. Campbell) attempted to avoid the
Civil War though conciliation efforts between north and south in 1860-61. Nelson retired
from the Court in 1872 and died a year later. Return to Last Page
William Moody graduated Harvard College and studied law briefly thereafter. He left law
school and apprenticed in a law office in Boston, entering the bar in1878. Moody was active in
Republican politics and was named district attorney for eastern Massachusetts in 1890. He
rose to prominence when he prosecuted the alleged ax-murderer, Lizzie Borden. Although she
was acquitted, his prosecutorial skill was noted by leading Republicans of the day. Moody
had powerful friends in high places. He was close to New York police commissioner Theodore
Roosevelt. When Roosevelt assumed the presidency, he called on Moody to serve as Secretary
of the Navy. Later Roosevelt appointed him attorney general and then elevated him to the
High Court to replace Justice Henry Brown. Moody's Court career was cut short by a form of
crippling rheumatism that forced his early retirement from the bench. Return to Last Page
Thomas Stanley Matthews was a wunderkind. He entered Kenyon College as a junior and
graduated at sixteen. He read law and then moved from Ohio to Tennessee where he was admitted to the
bar at eighteen. He returned to Ohio two years where he was a newspaper editor. His strong
antislavery views propelled him to a number of public offices. Matthews would later serve
briefly in the United States Senate. He was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes
when Justice Swayne resigned. The appointment was not confirmed. The senate accused Hayes
of cronyism since he and Matthews were classmates at Kenyon College, practiced law in
Cincinnati, and served as officers in the state infantry. Garfield renominated Matthews.
The matter finally came to a vote in 1881 and Matthews' appointment was confirmed, 24 to
23. Matthews proved a hard worker who shouldered significant responsibility. Though his
tenure was relatively brief (only seven years), his opinions for the Court in the Hurtado
and Yick Wo cases, have had lasting influence since they are cited by judges to this day. Return to Last Page
John Marshall was born in a log cabin on the Virginia frontier, the first of fifteen
children. He was a participant in the Revolutionary War as a member of the 3d Virginia Regiment. He
studied law briefly in 1780, and was admitted to practice the same year. He quickly
established a successful career defending individuals against their pre-War British
creditors.
Marshall served in Virginia's House of Delegates. He also participated in the state
ratifying convention and spoke forcefully on behalf of the new constitution to replace the
Articles of Confederation.
Marshall contemplated several offers to serve in the Washington and Adams
administrations. He declined service as attorney general for Washington; he declined
positions on the Supreme Court and as secretary of war under Adams. At Washington's
direction, Marshall ran successfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives but
his tenure there was brief. Adams offered Marshall the position of secretary of state,
which Marshall accepted. When Ellsworth resigned as chief justice in 1800, Adams turned to
the first chief justice, John Jay, who declined. Federalists urged Adams to promote
associate justice William Paterson to the spot; Adams opted for Marshall.
Marshall's impact on American constitutional law is peerless. He served for more than
34 years (a record that few others have broken), he participated in more than 1000
decisions and authored over 500 opinions. As the single most important figure on
constitutional law, Marshall's imprint can still be fathomed in the great issues of
contemporary America. Other justices will surpass his single accomplishments, but no one
will replace him as the Babe Ruth of the Supreme Court! Return to Last Page
Born to a social prominent family, Joseph Lamar spent most of his life in his
native Georgia. Though he attended the University of Georgia, he completed his education
at Bethany College. Lamar studied law briefly at Washington and Lee University and passed
the Georgia bar in 1880. While in private practice, Lamar served two terms in the Georgia
legislature. Lamar was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1903 but served only two
years. Lamar's nomination to the nation's highest court was something of a surprise. Lamar
had only brief contact with President Taft as a result of Taft's occasional vacations in
Lamar's community of Augusta, Georgia. Lamar was little known outside the South, which
cast potential doubt on his confirmation by a Republican Senate. Those doubts proved
unfounded; Lamar was confirmed five days after his nomination. Lamar proved to be a
pedestrian justice, lacking imagination and creativity. He died after five years of
service, leaving hardly a strand in the fabric of the law. Return to Last Page
Stephen Johnson Field was born and raised in Connecticut. He attended
Williams College and then read law. Field's family was remarkably accomplished. His three brothers were David Dudley
Field (New York lawyer and politician), Cyrus W. Field (who promoted the first telegraph
cable under the Atlantic Ocean), and Henry M. Field (a leading clergyman and author).
Field's nephew was David Brewer, who was a Supreme Court justice; he and Field served
together during Field's last 7 years on the bench; and Field's niece (Anita Whitney) was a
litigant in a significant free speech case decided by the Court in 1927. Field moved to
California where he was elected as a Democrat to state legislative office and, later, to
the state supreme court. Field was nominated by Lincoln in 1863 to fill a newly created
tenth seat on the High Court. Field's appointment as a Democrat was based on his staunch
support of the Union cause. Field wanted to be chief justice, but that was not to be. He
remained on the Court well after his faculties started to wane. Field's 34 years and 9+
months on the Court surpassed John Marshall's service by a mere five months.
Oliver Ellsworth was born and raised in Connecticut. He attended Yale College but left
after two years to complete his studies at Princeton. He prepared to enter the ministry but
then switched to the study of law. Ellsworth eked out an existence as a farmer while
nurturing his legal practice. (In his later years, Ellsworth wrote a newspaper column on
farming advice.) His practice grew as did his income. Ellsworth held elective office in
Connecticut and was later elected to represent the state at the Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia. He was the co-author of the Great Compromise that offered an acceptable
representation formula for small and large states. He did not sign the document, however,
because he left to attend to business in Connecticut. Ellsworth was elected senator and
played a vital role in the Congress as principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which spelled out the structure and function of the national judiciary. President George
Washington appointed Ellsworth to the position of chief justice. Ellsworth resigned after
three years with little to have shown for his efforts. Perhaps Ellsworth's most lasting
contribution while on the Court was a reduction in the practice of each justice authoring
a separate seriatim opinion. Ellsworth encouraged the use of a single opinion representing
the consensus of the justices. Marshall elaborated on the single-opinion concept and it
later became associated with his tenure as chief justice. Return to Last Page
Willis Van Devanter spent his early years in Indiana but headed to Wyoming Territory
shortly after receiving his law degree. Van Devanter opened his law practice In Cheyenne and
became active in Republican politics. For his efforts, President Benjamin Harrison
appointed Van Devanter as chief justice of the Wyoming Territorial Supreme Court at the
ripe old age of 30! After a stint in Washington as an assistant attorney general, Van
Devanter accepted President Theodore Roosevelt's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 8th Circuit. Seven years later, President William Howard Taft nominated Van
Devanter to the Supreme Court. Van Devanter was afflicted with "pen paralysis."
He rarely spoke for the Court in constitutional cases.
William Cushing was born to a old and distinguished Massachusetts family. He was a
teacher for a year following graduation from Harvard College. He then turned to law and
established a private practice in Scituate, his home town. But he was not a skilled lawyer
and left practice for the bench. He served as a justice of the peace and as a judge of
probates in the region of Massachusetts now known as Maine, but he seemed incapable of
making decisions, which is a necessary condition of judging. (Cushing was the last
American judge to wear a full wig. He abandoned the habit in 1790.) Cushing was a
reluctant supporter of revolution in the colonies. But he was a strong advocate of the new
Constitution. He was vice president of the state ratifying convention in 1788. Washington
nominated Cushing as one of the original Supreme Court appointees. While still on the High
Court, Cushing ran unsuccessfully against Samuel Adams for governor of Massachusetts.
Washington offered Cushing the chief justice position when Jay resigned, but Cushing
declined. Return to Last Page
John Catron was a self-educated man who served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812.
Catron was a successful businessman and lawyer in the Nashville area. He was elected to the position
of chief justice of Tennessee's highest court but later resigned when the court was
abolished by judicial reorganization. Catron was active in politics and directed the
presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in Tennessee. President Andrew Jackson picked
Catron to fill one of two newly created seats on the nation's highest court. Jackson
nominated his fellow Tennessean Catron on his final day in office as president. Catron
stood on the states' rights side but opposed secession. He was forced to leave Tennessee
when he refused to support the Confederacy. Catron died in harness on May 30, 1865.
Congress then abolished his seat, reducing the number of justices from ten to nine.
Samuel Blatchford was born and educated in New York. He enrolled in Columbia College at
thirteen and graduated at the top of his class. He practiced admiralty and international law
for 25 years when he was appointed a federal trial judge in 1867. Five years later,
Blatchford was elevated to the U.S. Circuit Court. He was an appellate judge for 10 years
when Chester A. Arthur appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1882. Blatchford was Arthur's
third choice for the High Court seat, but two other candidates refused Arthur's invitation
to serve. Blatchford was an expert in admiralty and patent law, and he was well-versed in
the construction of the nation's banking laws. This wealth of knowledge made Blatchford
the Court's workhorse. Blatchford was uninterested in questions of moment; but he was
supremely invested in the judicial function, dissenting less frequently than any justice
since the era of John Marshall. He authored few cases calling for constitutional
interpretation. One lackluster performance was Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway v.
Minnesota (1890).
John Blair, Jr. was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention. He served on
the committee that drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution. He as appointed a state
judge in 1777. Blair was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he never
made a speech. President George Washington appointed Blair one of the original justices of
the Supreme Court. He served during a period when the Court handed down few important
decisions. Blair left no mark -- for good or for ill -- on the nation's jurisprudence.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Pennsylvania House Representative
Henry Baldwin was an American judge who was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
(1830-1844). He was born in New Haven, Conn., on Jan. 14th 1780, and graduated with honors from Yale
in 1797. He was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh and practiced law there and in
Meadville, Pa.
Henry Baldwin was elected to the first of three terms as the representative for
Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1816 (to 1822). He was a supporter of
protective tariffs and played a leading role in Florida treaty negotiations before ill
health forced him to resign in 1822.
An ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson in the presidential campaign of 1828, he hoped to be
named secretary of the treasury but was instead appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in
1830, a position he held until 1844. Initially, his respect for Chief Justice John
Marshall allied him to the liberal interpreters of the Constitution, but he gradually
moved to the middle ground. He attempted to put his judicial principles in a systematic
framework in A General View of the Origin and Nature of the Constitution and Government
of the United States (1837). His decisions on the court were unpredictable. His most
important opinion was handed down in the Florida Land Case, United States v. Arredondo
(1832), which made strict adherence to treaties a basic element of public land policy.
He died in Philadelphia on April 2nd,1844.
U.S. Senator; U.S. Supreme Court Justice and South Carolina Governor
James Francis Byrnes was born in Charleston in 1879. He served in the U.S. House of
Representatives from 1911 to 1925. In 1930 he was elected U.S. Senator and he was reelected in the
1936 election. He was a member of the appropriations, banking and currency, and foreign
relations committees.
Byrnes was a close confidant of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's and in 1941 Roosevelt
appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. He left this appointment in 1942 to serve as the
Director of the National Economy. After Roosevelt's death, President Truman appointed him
Secretary of State, and he served as chief of U.S. foreign policy until 1947.
In 1946 Time Magazine declared him "Man of the Year." He was elected Governor
of South Carolina in 1950, and in 1953 he was named a United Nations delegate by President
Eisenhower.
Governor of California, appointed Chief Justice by Dwight Eisenhower (R)
in 1953, served until 1969.
"Warren did not immediately
manifest the libertarian activism that would eventually result in all-out assaults on the
Court, accompanied by the
distribution of 'Impeach Earl Warren' bumper stickers and Warren Impeachment Kits. By
mid-1956 it had become crystal clear that, as Chief Justice of the United States, Earl
Warren was in the process of providing leadership for a libertarian activist approach to
public law and personal rights that went far beyond the Eisenhower brand of progressive
Republicanism. The Chief Justice, usually with Justices Black and Douglas (and later
Brennan) by his side, wrought a constitutional revolution in the application of the Bill
of Rights to the states; in the generous interpretation of specific provisions of
criminal-justice safeguards for the individual; in the application and interpretation of
the Civil War amendments; in the liberalization of the right to foreign travel, to vote,
the right to run for office, and the right to fair representation, to 'one person, one
vote'; to an elevated commitment to freedom of expression; and in many other sectors of
the freedom of the individual. He was the Chief Justice par excellence - second in
institutional-leadership greatness only to John Marshall himself. Like Marshall he
understood and utilized the tools of pervasive and persuasive power leadership available
to him; he knew how to bring men together, how to set a tone, and how to fashion a mood.
He was a wise man and a warm, kind human being. He was his Court, the Court."
-- Henry J. Abraham
Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, appointed by
Franklin Roosevelt (D) in 1943, served until 1949.
"Rutledge, who genuinely loved
people of all walks of life, demonstrated his firm libertarian colors. His score in behalf of individual claims against alleged violations
by government was higher than any of his colleagues'. The years of Rutledge's tenure saw
the Court at its libertarian apogee; after his death it would not return to a similar
posture until the heyday of the Warren Court." -- Henry J. Abraham
Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, appointed by Dwight
Eisenhower (R) in 1958, served until 1981.
"He charted a generally
progressive-conservative or moderately liberal course, depending on one's perception. During the heyday of the Warren Court, he was more
often than not found on the cautious, conservative, or 'centrist' side. But his stance on
racial and sexual discrimination, and, in particular, on the First and Fourteenth
amendments' guarantees of freedom of expression, found him only slightly less
proindividual or progroup than his most advanced libertarian activist contemporaries.
Stewart and Byron R. White turned into the 'swing men' on the Burger Court. It was a role
admirable suited for the cautious, judicious, fair-minded student of judicial power. He
will be remembered as a principled constitutionalist who had that all-too-rare ability to
write both simply and clearly." -- Henry J. Abraham
Solicitor General of the United States, appointed by Franklin Roosevelt
(D) in 1938, served until 1957.
"Reed was the least glamorous and least mercurial of the Roosevelt Justices. He
faithfully backed the President's program, but
observers generally label him as being far more of a judicial conservative than a liberal
on the bench - probably because, 'opposed to government by judges,' he moved more slowly
and cautiously than his colleagues on the frontiers of constitutional change, and because
he was reluctant to side with his more liberal associates in their escalating rulings that
favored individuals vis-a-vis government. This was especially true in national security
and criminal-justice cases, in which Reed usually fit into the law-and-order mold. Yet he
solidly backed the Court's developing position on racial segregation." -- Henry J.
Abraham
Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, appointed by
Harry Truman (D) in 1949, served until 1956.
"Despite the genuine affection of his colleagues, 'Shay' Minton was essentially
uncomfortable among high-powered judicial
individualists. His stint in the Court has been universally and justly regarded as a
failure. The ardent New Dealer continued to support strong governmental action during his
few years on the Court. But he left the President and many old colleagues of his New Deal
Senate days on the civil libertarian front, where he immediately joined the so-called
'conservative' wing of the Court. The likeable, witty, popular, tobacco-chewing Minton did
his share of work on the bench and contributed to the smoothing of internal conflicts, but
he wrote no opinions of lasting significance." -- Henry J. Abraham
Attorney General of the United States, appointed by Franklin Roosevelt
(D) in 1941, served until 1954.
"Jackson's acceptance of President
Truman's request in 1945 to become the U. S. Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes Trials, and his subsequent
absence from the Court for an entire term, compounded his difficulties with his
colleagues. Jackson was brilliant at Nuremberg, yet he returned from the trials a
different man: the once libertarian judicial activist had become profoundly cautious, a
markedly narrow interpreter of the Bill of Rights. Yet he remained an apostle of judicial
restraint in the economic-proprietarian sphere, supporting governmental authority to
regulate and thus remaining true to his basic New Deal commitments." -- Henry J.
Abraham
Solicitor General of the United States, appointed by Lyndon Johnson (D)
in 1967, served until 1991.
"Marshall became a predictable ally
of the remaining libertarian activists on the Court. His career has been somewhat uneven
participatory. It has reached high points in the areas of his greatest concern and
commitment - equal protection of the laws, due process of law, and First Amendment cases;
not a judicial workaholic, however, Marshall has evinced a rather indifferent, even
demonstrably bored, attitude toward some of the more technical problems of statutory
construction and constitutional interpretation in areas other than those of civil rights
and liberties." -- Henry J. Abraham
Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, appointed by Franklin
Roosevelt (D) in 1939, served until 1975.
"For thirty-six and one-half years
- a record not likely soon, if ever, to be broken - the feisty, determined, outspoken
judicial activist for liberal causes
and underdog individuals remained a highly visible member of the Court, notwithstanding a
pacemaker in his chest, a fifth wife forty years his junior, and gradually increasing
circulatory difficulties. The Douglas human rights posture would not be checked by the
verbiage of the Constitution: if that document and its Bill of Rights did not provide the
kind of protection for the individual Douglas deemed necessary to bring about equal
justice under law as he perceived it, well, he would find it. Often embattled off as well
as on the Court, this colorful and brilliant scholar eloquently articulated his posture
again and again - in cases at law as well as from the lecture podium, in books as well as
journals, including Playboy magazine." -- Henry J. Abraham
Kentucky lawyer and politician, appointed by Rutherford B. Hayes (R) in
1877, served until 1911.
"Harlan had not only become a firm devotee of the Civil War amendments, he had
also begun to commit himself with
consistency and eloquence - almost always in solo dissenting opinions - to the proposition
that the Fourteenth applied or 'incorporated' the Bill of Rights. More than any other
public figure on the nineteenth-century Supreme Court, Harlan would amply and poignantly
demonstrate that commitment, though almost invariably in dissent. Harlan became 'the
brilliant precursor in liberalism and dissent of Justice Holmes.' As long as conscience
will govern men and women, they will remember his outcry in solitary dissent from the
Court's 1896 opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the 'separate but
equal' doctrine: 'Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes
among citizens.'" -- Henry J. Abraham
Attorney General of the United States, appointed by Harry Truman (D) in
1949, served until 1967.
"Clark's years on the Court cast
him into a role of a determined, if cautious, craftsman of the law who frequently became a 'swing man' between the 'liberal' and
'conservative' blocs on the bench. Although he remained essentially true to his assertive
strong governmental position, he was fully alive to the basic lines and limits inherent in
constitutionalism and the nature of the judicial function. The country deeply regretted
Clark's self-imposed resignation at the close of the 1966-1967 term when LBJ appointed his
mercurial son, Ramsey Clark, Attorney General of the United States." -- Henry J.
Abraham
Ohio Senator (R), appointed by Harry Truman (D) in 1945, served until
1958.
"Burton spent thirteen years on the
Court, characterized by a combination of uncertainty, deliberate caution, independence, and unpredictability. Rarely could he be
found in the libertarian wing. Nonetheless, there were times when he would cross over,
especially when he believed the state or federal government to be taking impermissible
shortcuts with constitutionally guaranteed basic liberties - and he demonstrated a
generally tough view on the question of separation of Church and State. But he was
essentially a devotee of the self-restraint, 'when-in-doubt-don't' school of
jurisprudence, and he was far happier in the role of follower than leader." -- Henry
J. Abraham
U. S. District Judge for Ohio, appointed by Woodrow Wilson (D) in 1916,
served until 1922.
"Clarke's
brief tenure on the bench was solidly Wilsonian: progressive on social and economic
matters and liberal on civil rights and liberties. Indeed, Clarke's philosophy was
considerably to the left of Wilson and Brandeis. A committed and conscientious Justice,
nevertheless, he was unhappy on the Court. He grew increasingly disillusioned with what he
regarded as the Court's failure to embrace a genuinely liberal approach to public policy;
the McReynolds antics and hostilities were anathema to the gentle Clarke, who was
unwilling to ignore them and unable to cope with them." -- Henry J. Abraham
Alabama Senator (D), appointed by Franklin Roosevelt (D) in 1937, served
until 1971.
"Few jurists have had
the impact on law and society of Justice Black. A constitutional literalist to whom every
word in the document represented a command,
he, nonetheless, used the language of the Constitution to propound a jurisprudence that
has had a lasting effect on the development of American constitutional law. His
contributions were towering. They stand as jurisprudential and intellectual landmarks in
the evolving history of the land he loved so well. In the long run Black's achievements
encompass securing the central meaning of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It is
generally agreed that the nationalization of the Bill of Rights was Black's most visible
achievement; yet it is but one of many." -- Henry J. Abraham
for appointment: commitment to the Union, slavery opponent, geographically
correct. Swayne's left his native Virginia at age 19 because he was hostile to slavery. He
settled in Ohio and later served there in the state legislature. He was appointed United
States Attorney for Ohio by President Andrew Jackson. He retained his opposition to
slavery and joined the newly created Republican party in 1855. Swayne's close personal
friend was Justice John McLean who suggested that Lincoln appoint Swayne as his successor.
When McLean died, Swayne mustered support for the appointment to his friend's position.
Swayne was an undistinguished justice. He wrote few major opinions and served as an extra
vote in important majority and dissenting positions articulated by others. He stayed well
beyond his time; he deteriorated mentally and physically while still on the bench. Though
he lacked intellectual leadership, Swayne coveted the position of Chief Justice. He
campaigned aggressively and unsuccessfully for the spot in 1864 and in 1873. 
1845 and two years later passed the Ohio bar. He practiced law in his
hometown of Newark, Ohio where he also served as mayor. From this political perch, Woods
was elected to the state legislature and was soon chosen its Speaker. Woods was a
committed Democrat and resisted the growing Republican tide. At first, he opposed the
Civil War but then acknowledged the necessity of a Northern victory. He joined the Union
army and participated in the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg. After the War, Woods settled
in Alabama where he returned to law practice and took up cotton farming. Now a Republican,
Woods was appointed by Grant to sit on the 5th Judicial Circuit. President Hayes appointed
Woods to the Supreme Court in 1880, following 11 years on the circuit bench. This would be
the first appointment from a Confederate state since 1853. (Woods was succeeded by Lucius
Lamar who would be the first ex-Confederate on the High Court.) 
ol in Litchfield, Connecticut. He abandoned law school for private study in
an apprenticeship. However, his formal studies made Woodbury the first Supreme Court
justice to have attended law school. 
school and entered the practice of law in Kentucky at the age of 21. Vinson
was a congressman for 8 terms and served on the influential Ways and Means Committee
during much of the New Deal. He resigned his House seat to accept an appointment by
Roosevelt to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. After five years on
the bench, Vinson resigned to accept an appointment in the Roosevelt administration as
head of the Office of Economic Stabilization. Vinson later succeeded former justice James
Byrnes as head of the Office of War Mobilization. Vinson became a trusted advisor to
President Harry Truman, who appointed him Secretary of the Treasury. Truman later
nominated Vinson to the position of Chief Justice. Vinson avoided the announcement of
sweeping constitutional principles. He resisted overturning prior decisions. Though he
helped chip away at the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial separation, he
resisted a head-on confrontation of the issue in Brown v. Board of Education. Vinson's
sudden death from a heart attack in 1953 paved the way for the unanimous opinion crafted
by Vinson's successor, Earl Warren. 
short stint in the Kentucky House of Representatives, Trimble took a seat on
the state Court of Appeals. He resigned 8 years later stating that the compensation ($1000
a year) was inadequate. Trimble devoted his energy to private practice. By 1817, he was a
rich man and owned several slaves. With his financial security assured, Trimble accepted
Madison's nomination to the federal trial court in Kentucky. Eight years later, John
Quincy Adams named Trimble, a staunch nationalist, as his only appointment to the Supreme
Court. Trimble's tenure was brief: 27 months. He was the Court's voice in 15 opinions. His
only constitutional opinion gave rise to Chief Justice John Marshall's only dissent. 
from Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University), Todd tutored the
daughters of a distant relative in return for room, board, and law instruction. Todd later
moved to the area of Virginia that would become Kentucky. He was intimately involved in
the statehood issue and was appointed by Kentucky's first governor to serve on the state's
highest court. In 1807, Congress increased the membership of the Supreme Court from five
to six. Jefferson selected Todd for the seat because of his familiarity with land law
problems, especially those arising from the newly created western circuit of the Supreme
Court (Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee). Todd served for 18 years but did not write a single
constitutional opinion. In fact, he wrote a total of fourteen opinions, and most of those
involved land law issues. He missed five entire Court sessions on account of personal or
health issues. 
chosen as a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia
where he introduced the New Jersey Plan calling for equal political representation for the
states. The idea merged into the Great Compromise. Paterson signed the draft Constitution
and advocated its ratification in New Jersey. The New Jersey legislature elected Paterson
to the United States Senate in 1789. He resigned his seat in 1790 to become New Jersey's
governor. George Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1793. During his tenure,
Paterson was a firm advocate of national supremacy over state government. When Oliver
Ellsworth resigned as chief justice in 1800, many senators thought that the position ought
to go to Paterson. Adams shunned that counsel and nominated John Marshall as his choice.
Paterson was injured in a carriage accident in 1803 and never fully recovered. He died
three years later. 
ind after graduating from Middlebury College and studied law instead. He
practiced law and was active in political affairs. He held state judicial commissions for
22 years before his elevation to the Supreme Court in 1845. 
in a law office in Boston, entering the bar in1878. Moody was active in
Republican politics and was named district attorney for eastern Massachusetts in 1890. He
rose to prominence when he prosecuted the alleged ax-murderer, Lizzie Borden. Although she
was acquitted, his prosecutorial skill was noted by leading Republicans of the day. Moody
had powerful friends in high places. He was close to New York police commissioner Theodore
Roosevelt. When Roosevelt assumed the presidency, he called on Moody to serve as Secretary
of the Navy. Later Roosevelt appointed him attorney general and then elevated him to the
High Court to replace Justice Henry Brown. Moody's Court career was cut short by a form of
crippling rheumatism that forced his early retirement from the bench. 
read law and then moved from Ohio to Tennessee where he was admitted to the
bar at eighteen. He returned to Ohio two years where he was a newspaper editor. His strong
antislavery views propelled him to a number of public offices. Matthews would later serve
briefly in the United States Senate. He was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes
when Justice Swayne resigned. The appointment was not confirmed. The senate accused Hayes
of cronyism since he and Matthews were classmates at Kenyon College, practiced law in
Cincinnati, and served as officers in the state infantry. Garfield renominated Matthews.
The matter finally came to a vote in 1881 and Matthews' appointment was confirmed, 24 to
23. Matthews proved a hard worker who shouldered significant responsibility. Though his
tenure was relatively brief (only seven years), his opinions for the Court in the Hurtado
and Yick Wo cases, have had lasting influence since they are cited by judges to this day. 
Revolutionary War as a member of the 3d Virginia Regiment. He
studied law briefly in 1780, and was admitted to practice the same year. He quickly
established a successful career defending individuals against their pre-War British
creditors. 
Born to a social prominent family, Joseph Lamar spent most of his life in his
native Georgia. Though he attended the University of Georgia, he completed his education
at Bethany College. Lamar studied law briefly at Washington and Lee University and passed
the Georgia bar in 1880. While in private practice, Lamar served two terms in the Georgia
legislature. Lamar was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1903 but served only two
years. Lamar's nomination to the nation's highest court was something of a surprise. Lamar
had only brief contact with President Taft as a result of Taft's occasional vacations in
Lamar's community of Augusta, Georgia. Lamar was little known outside the South, which
cast potential doubt on his confirmation by a Republican Senate. Those doubts proved
unfounded; Lamar was confirmed five days after his nomination. Lamar proved to be a
pedestrian justice, lacking imagination and creativity. He died after five years of
service, leaving hardly a strand in the fabric of the law. 
's family was remarkably accomplished. His three brothers were David Dudley
Field (New York lawyer and politician), Cyrus W. Field (who promoted the first telegraph
cable under the Atlantic Ocean), and Henry M. Field (a leading clergyman and author).
Field's nephew was David Brewer, who was a Supreme Court justice; he and Field served
together during Field's last 7 years on the bench; and Field's niece (Anita Whitney) was a
litigant in a significant free speech case decided by the Court in 1927. Field moved to
California where he was elected as a Democrat to state legislative office and, later, to
the state supreme court. Field was nominated by Lincoln in 1863 to fill a newly created
tenth seat on the High Court. Field's appointment as a Democrat was based on his staunch
support of the Union cause. Field wanted to be chief justice, but that was not to be. He
remained on the Court well after his faculties started to wane. Field's 34 years and 9+
months on the Court surpassed John Marshall's service by a mere five months. 
his studies at Princeton. He prepared to enter the ministry but
then switched to the study of law. Ellsworth eked out an existence as a farmer while
nurturing his legal practice. (In his later years, Ellsworth wrote a newspaper column on
farming advice.) His practice grew as did his income. Ellsworth held elective office in
Connecticut and was later elected to represent the state at the Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia. He was the co-author of the Great Compromise that offered an acceptable
representation formula for small and large states. He did not sign the document, however,
because he left to attend to business in Connecticut. Ellsworth was elected senator and
played a vital role in the Congress as principal author of the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which spelled out the structure and function of the national judiciary. President George
Washington appointed Ellsworth to the position of chief justice. Ellsworth resigned after
three years with little to have shown for his efforts. Perhaps Ellsworth's most lasting
contribution while on the Court was a reduction in the practice of each justice authoring
a separate seriatim opinion. Ellsworth encouraged the use of a single opinion representing
the consensus of the justices. Marshall elaborated on the single-opinion concept and it
later became associated with his tenure as chief justice. 
degree. Van Devanter opened his law practice In Cheyenne and
became active in Republican politics. For his efforts, President Benjamin Harrison
appointed Van Devanter as chief justice of the Wyoming Territorial Supreme Court at the
ripe old age of 30! After a stint in Washington as an assistant attorney general, Van
Devanter accepted President Theodore Roosevelt's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 8th Circuit. Seven years later, President William Howard Taft nominated Van
Devanter to the Supreme Court. Van Devanter was afflicted with "pen paralysis."
He rarely spoke for the Court in constitutional cases. 
businessman and lawyer in the Nashville area. He was elected to the position
of chief justice of Tennessee's highest court but later resigned when the court was
abolished by judicial reorganization. Catron was active in politics and directed the
presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in Tennessee. President Andrew Jackson picked
Catron to fill one of two newly created seats on the nation's highest court. Jackson
nominated his fellow Tennessean Catron on his final day in office as president. Catron
stood on the states' rights side but opposed secession. He was forced to leave Tennessee
when he refused to support the Confederacy. Catron died in harness on May 30, 1865.
Congress then abolished his seat, reducing the number of justices from ten to nine. 
top of his class. He practiced admiralty and international law
for 25 years when he was appointed a federal trial judge in 1867. Five years later,
Blatchford was elevated to the U.S. Circuit Court. He was an appellate judge for 10 years
when Chester A. Arthur appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1882. Blatchford was Arthur's
third choice for the High Court seat, but two other candidates refused Arthur's invitation
to serve. Blatchford was an expert in admiralty and patent law, and he was well-versed in
the construction of the nation's banking laws. This wealth of knowledge made Blatchford
the Court's workhorse. Blatchford was uninterested in questions of moment; but he was
supremely invested in the judicial function, dissenting less frequently than any justice
since the era of John Marshall. He authored few cases calling for constitutional
interpretation. One lackluster performance was Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway v.
Minnesota (1890). 
Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution. He as appointed a state
judge in 1777. Blair was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he never
made a speech. President George Washington appointed Blair one of the original justices of
the Supreme Court. He served during a period when the Court handed down few important
decisions. Blair left no mark -- for good or for ill -- on the nation's jurisprudence. 
in New Haven, Conn., on Jan. 14th 1780, and graduated with honors from Yale
in 1797. He was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh and practiced law there and in
Meadville, Pa.
. In 1930 he was elected U.S. Senator and he was reelected in the
1936 election. He was a member of the appropriations, banking and currency, and foreign
relations committees. ![[Portrait of Chief Justice Warren]](warren.jpg)
accompanied by the
distribution of 'Impeach Earl Warren' bumper stickers and Warren Impeachment Kits. By
mid-1956 it had become crystal clear that, as Chief Justice of the United States, Earl
Warren was in the process of providing leadership for a libertarian activist approach to
public law and personal rights that went far beyond the Eisenhower brand of progressive
Republicanism. The Chief Justice, usually with Justices Black and Douglas (and later
Brennan) by his side, wrought a constitutional revolution in the application of the Bill
of Rights to the states; in the generous interpretation of specific provisions of
criminal-justice safeguards for the individual; in the application and interpretation of
the Civil War amendments; in the liberalization of the right to foreign travel, to vote,
the right to run for office, and the right to fair representation, to 'one person, one
vote'; to an elevated commitment to freedom of expression; and in many other sectors of
the freedom of the individual. He was the Chief Justice par excellence - second in
institutional-leadership greatness only to John Marshall himself. Like Marshall he
understood and utilized the tools of pervasive and persuasive power leadership available
to him; he knew how to bring men together, how to set a tone, and how to fashion a mood.
He was a wise man and a warm, kind human being. He was his Court, the Court."
-- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Rutledge]](rutledge.jpg)
alf of individual claims against alleged violations
by government was higher than any of his colleagues'. The years of Rutledge's tenure saw
the Court at its libertarian apogee; after his death it would not return to a similar
posture until the heyday of the Warren Court." -- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Stewart]](stewart.jpg)
ing the heyday of the Warren Court, he was more
often than not found on the cautious, conservative, or 'centrist' side. But his stance on
racial and sexual discrimination, and, in particular, on the First and Fourteenth
amendments' guarantees of freedom of expression, found him only slightly less
proindividual or progroup than his most advanced libertarian activist contemporaries.
Stewart and Byron R. White turned into the 'swing men' on the Burger Court. It was a role
admirable suited for the cautious, judicious, fair-minded student of judicial power. He
will be remembered as a principled constitutionalist who had that all-too-rare ability to
write both simply and clearly." -- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Reed]](reed.jpg)
program, but
observers generally label him as being far more of a judicial conservative than a liberal
on the bench - probably because, 'opposed to government by judges,' he moved more slowly
and cautiously than his colleagues on the frontiers of constitutional change, and because
he was reluctant to side with his more liberal associates in their escalating rulings that
favored individuals vis-a-vis government. This was especially true in national security
and criminal-justice cases, in which Reed usually fit into the law-and-order mold. Yet he
solidly backed the Court's developing position on racial segregation." -- Henry J.
Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Minton]](minton.jpg)
ered judicial
individualists. His stint in the Court has been universally and justly regarded as a
failure. The ardent New Dealer continued to support strong governmental action during his
few years on the Court. But he left the President and many old colleagues of his New Deal
Senate days on the civil libertarian front, where he immediately joined the so-called
'conservative' wing of the Court. The likeable, witty, popular, tobacco-chewing Minton did
his share of work on the bench and contributed to the smoothing of internal conflicts, but
he wrote no opinions of lasting significance." -- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Jackson]](jackson.jpg)
rg Nazi War Crimes Trials, and his subsequent
absence from the Court for an entire term, compounded his difficulties with his
colleagues. Jackson was brilliant at Nuremberg, yet he returned from the trials a
different man: the once libertarian judicial activist had become profoundly cautious, a
markedly narrow interpreter of the Bill of Rights. Yet he remained an apostle of judicial
restraint in the economic-proprietarian sphere, supporting governmental authority to
regulate and thus remaining true to his basic New Deal commitments." -- Henry J.
Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Marshall]](Marshall.jpg)
"Marshall became a predictable ally
of the remaining libertarian activists on the Court. His career has been somewhat uneven
participatory. It has reached high points in the areas of his greatest concern and
commitment - equal protection of the laws, due process of law, and First Amendment cases;
not a judicial workaholic, however, Marshall has evinced a rather indifferent, even
demonstrably bored, attitude toward some of the more technical problems of statutory
construction and constitutional interpretation in areas other than those of civil rights
and liberties." -- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Douglas]](douglas.jpg)
for liberal causes
and underdog individuals remained a highly visible member of the Court, notwithstanding a
pacemaker in his chest, a fifth wife forty years his junior, and gradually increasing
circulatory difficulties. The Douglas human rights posture would not be checked by the
verbiage of the Constitution: if that document and its Bill of Rights did not provide the
kind of protection for the individual Douglas deemed necessary to bring about equal
justice under law as he perceived it, well, he would find it. Often embattled off as well
as on the Court, this colorful and brilliant scholar eloquently articulated his posture
again and again - in cases at law as well as from the lecture podium, in books as well as
journals, including Playboy magazine." -- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Harlan]](harlani.jpg)
ith
consistency and eloquence - almost always in solo dissenting opinions - to the proposition
that the Fourteenth applied or 'incorporated' the Bill of Rights. More than any other
public figure on the nineteenth-century Supreme Court, Harlan would amply and poignantly
demonstrate that commitment, though almost invariably in dissent. Harlan became 'the
brilliant precursor in liberalism and dissent of Justice Holmes.' As long as conscience
will govern men and women, they will remember his outcry in solitary dissent from the
Court's 1896 opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the 'separate but
equal' doctrine: 'Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes
among citizens.'" -- Henry J. Abraham
came a 'swing man' between the 'liberal' and
'conservative' blocs on the bench. Although he remained essentially true to his assertive
strong governmental position, he was fully alive to the basic lines and limits inherent in
constitutionalism and the nature of the judicial function. The country deeply regretted
Clark's self-imposed resignation at the close of the 1966-1967 term when LBJ appointed his
mercurial son, Ramsey Clark, Attorney General of the United States." -- Henry J.
Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Burton]](burton.jpg)
dence, and unpredictability. Rarely could he be
found in the libertarian wing. Nonetheless, there were times when he would cross over,
especially when he believed the state or federal government to be taking impermissible
shortcuts with constitutionally guaranteed basic liberties - and he demonstrated a
generally tough view on the question of separation of Church and State. But he was
essentially a devotee of the self-restraint, 'when-in-doubt-don't' school of
jurisprudence, and he was far happier in the role of follower than leader." -- Henry
J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Clarke]](clarke.jpg)
"Clarke's
brief tenure on the bench was solidly Wilsonian: progressive on social and economic
matters and liberal on civil rights and liberties. Indeed, Clarke's philosophy was
considerably to the left of Wilson and Brandeis. A committed and conscientious Justice,
nevertheless, he was unhappy on the Court. He grew increasingly disillusioned with what he
regarded as the Court's failure to embrace a genuinely liberal approach to public policy;
the McReynolds antics and hostilities were anathema to the gentle Clarke, who was
unwilling to ignore them and unable to cope with them." -- Henry J. Abraham![[Portrait of Justice Black]](Black.jpg)
represented a command,
he, nonetheless, used the language of the Constitution to propound a jurisprudence that
has had a lasting effect on the development of American constitutional law. His
contributions were towering. They stand as jurisprudential and intellectual landmarks in
the evolving history of the land he loved so well. In the long run Black's achievements
encompass securing the central meaning of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It is
generally agreed that the nationalization of the Bill of Rights was Black's most visible
achievement; yet it is but one of many." -- Henry J. Abraham