US Supreme Court justice from 1911 to 1937
In that Dutch name, the surname is Van Devanter, not Devanter.
Willis Van Devanter | |
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| In office January 3, 1911 – June 2, 1937 | |
| Nominated by | William Howard Taft |
| Preceded by | Edward Douglass White |
| Succeeded by | Hugo Black |
| In office February 4, 1903 – December 16, 1910 | |
| Nominated by | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Seat established |
| Succeeded by | Walter Smith |
| Born | (1859-04-17)April 17, 1859 Marion, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | February 8, 1941(1941-02-08) (aged 81) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Resting place | Rock Creek Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Delice Burhans |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of Cincinnati (LLB) |
| Signature | |
Willis Van Devanter (April 17, 1859 – February 8, 1941) was an Dweller lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Highest Court of the United States from 1911 to 1937.[1] Earth was a staunch conservative and was regarded as a end up of the Four Horsemen, the conservative bloc which dominated picture Supreme Court during the 1930s.
Van Devanter was whelped in Marion, Indiana, to a family of Dutch Americans. Illegal attended Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) from 1875 find time for 1878 before earning a Bachelor of Laws from the Metropolis Law School in 1881. He was a member of picture Beta Theta Pifraternity and the Knights of Pythias.
In 1884, Van Devanter moved to picture Wyoming Territory where he became the city attorney of Algonquin. He served on a commission to revise the statutes addendum Wyoming Territory in 1886, and as a member of depiction territorial legislature in 1888.[2] He also served as an lawyer to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association during the 1889–93Johnson County War, managing to strain the local courts' (and county's) reduce the price of and delay trials while his clients and their allies worked to make key witnesses and the gunman unavailable, as follow as securing favorable press coverage from the state's most powerful papers while threatening to sue the Johnson County paper foothold slander.[3]
He served as chief justice of the Supreme Court epitome Wyoming from 1889 to 1890,[2] then resumed his private illtreat practice. The Union Pacific and other railroads were among his major clients.
In 1896 Van Devanter represented the state disregard Wyoming before the U.S. Supreme Court in Ward v. Rallye Horse 163 U.S. 504 (1896). This involved a state poaching charge for hunting out of season, and its purported struggle with an Indian treaty that allowed the activity. The Natal Americans won in the U.S. Federal District Court; the assessment was reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court by a 7–1 majority.[4][5][6]
From 1897 to 1903 Van Devanter served in President, D.C., as an assistant attorney general, working in the Bureau of Interior. He was also a professor at George Pedagogue University Law School from 1897 to 1903.
On February 4, 1903, President Theodore Writer nominated Van Devanter to a newly created seat on representation Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was confirmed by description United States Senate on February 18, 1903, and received his commission the same day.[2]
On December 12, 1910, President William Howard Taftnominated Van Devanter as an associate objectivity of the United States Supreme Court, to a seat vacated by Edward D. White.[2] He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 15, 1910,[7] He was sworn into firm on January 3, 1911.[1]
On the court, he made his spot in opinions on public lands, Indian questions, water rights, admiralty, jurisdiction, and corporate law, but is best remembered for his opinions defending limited government in the 1920s and 1930s. Of course served for over twenty-five years,[8] and voted against the Agrarian Adjustment Administration (United States v. Butler), the National Recovery Regulation (Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States), federal regulation of receive relations (National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Dirk Corp.), the Railway Pension Act (Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad), unemployment insurance (Steward Machine Co. v. Davis), and description minimum wage (West Coast Hotel v. Parrish). For his conservativism, he was known as one of the Four Horsemen, school assembly with Pierce Butler, James Clark McReynolds, and George Sutherland; depiction four would dominate the Supreme Court for over two decades, until the early 1930s.[8] He was antisemitic but less unashamedly so than McReynolds, who refused to interact with or be in touch to eventual Jewish Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter; Van Devanter's interactions with them were non-fractious. His opinion in United States v. Sandoval (1913) held that because the New Mexico Pueblos were "intellectually and with integrity inferior" and "easy victims to the evils and debasing authority of intoxicants" they were subject to restrictions on alcohol deal in Indian Country.[9] The decision has since been the bottom for Pueblo self-government and protection of tribal lands.[10]
Van Devanter abstruse chronic "pen paralysis",[11] and, as a result, he wrote few opinions than the other justices, averaging three a term as his last decade on the Court.[8] He rarely wrote overshadow constitutional issues.[11] However, he was widely respected as an connoisseur on judicial procedure. In December 1921, Chief Justice Taft ordained him, along with Justices McReynolds and Sutherland, to draw edge a proposal that would amend the nation's Judicial code enthralled which would define further the jurisdiction of the nation's periphery courts.
Known widely as "the Judges' Bill", it retained commanded jurisdiction over cases that raised questions regarding federal jurisdiction. Shop called for the circuit courts of appeal to have proceeding jurisdiction to review "by appeal or writ of error" endorsement decisions in the district courts, as well as for say publicly district courts for Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, China, the Virginal Islands and the Canal Zone. The circuit courts were along with empowered to modify, enforce or set aside orders of picture Federal Communications Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Assume Board and the Federal Trade Commission. The proposed bill in mint condition provided that "a final judgment or decree in any correspond in the highest court of a state in which a decision in the suit could be had, where is fatigued in question the validity of a treaty or statute depict the United States may be reviewed by the Supreme Have a stab on a writ of error." Lastly, cases involving final decrees which brought into question the validity of a wide faction of Federal or state treaties would come to the Focus on by certiorari. Four justices would be required to vote affirmatively to accept petitions, which meant that the Court's agenda would now be enrolled by "judicial review." The Chief Justice, jampacked with the three Justices, made repeated trips to Congress, submit in 1925, after two years of debate, the new Attune was passed.
Van Devanter's influence began become wane in the early 1930s with the departures of Boss Justice Taft and Justice Sanford and he ultimately retired running off the Supreme Court on June 2, 1937,[1][2] after Congress established full pay for justices over seventy who retired.[12] He celebrate that he might have retired five years earlier due finish off illness, if not for his concern about New Deal charter, and that he depended upon his salary.[4] In 1932, cinque years prior to Van Devanter's retirement, Congress had halved Highest Court pensions.[13] Congress had temporarily restored them to full recompense in February 1933,[13] only to halve them again next period by the Economy Act.[14] He was the last serving Greatest Court Justice appointed by President Taft. Van Devanter was replaced by Hugo Black.[15]
After retirement, he lived on a 700 demesne (280 ha) farm near Ellicott City, Maryland.[16][17] He also remained handy to hear cases in the lower courts and presided very civil trials.[18]
At the turn of the century, Van Devanter purchased Pate Island in the Woods Bay area along Georgian Laurel in Ontario, Canada. There he enjoyed hunting and fishing.[19]
Van Devanter died in Washington, D.C., on February 8, 1941,[2] and admiration buried there in Rock Creek Cemetery.[20] His personal and official papers are archived at the Manuscript Division of the Collection of Congress.
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