Morrison R. Waite

Morrison Remick Waite (born November 29, 1816 in Lyme , Connecticut , † March 23, 1888 in Washington, DC ) was Chief Justice of the United States from 1874 to 1888.

Life

Waite was the son of Henry Matson Waite , who was Judge and Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1834 to 1854 and and later Chief Justice (1854 to 1857).

He graduated in 1837 graduated from the Yale University successfully and was in the local fraternity Skull and Bones added. Soon after, he moved to Maumee ( Ohio to) where he legal studies at the law firm of Samuel L. Young, he became in 1839 set as a lawyer in the. In 1850 he moved to Toledo , where he was soon given a senior position in the public prosecutor's office. In American politics he first appeared in the Whig Party ; later he became a member of the Republicans . He served in the Ohio Senate from 1849 to 1850 . In 1871 he represented the USA together with William M. Evarts and Caleb Cushing as an advisor before the Tribunal of Alabama in Geneva , in 1874 he was the President of the Constitutional Convention in Ohio. In the same year he was appointed by US President Ulysses S. Grant to succeed the late US Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase and remained in this position until his death.

Through the developments that arose from the Civil War and the associated reconstruction, and particularly in cases involving an interpretation of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , he tended to sympathize with the general view of the Court, namely to limit the further expansion of the influence of a federal government. In a partially disturbing order in the United States v. Cruiksbank he struck the Enabling Act (English: Enforcement Act ) down, and decided: (loosely translated) that "it is the supreme duty of States, since they the Union under the Constitution joined, all the people together to protect their borders, in the Exercise of these inalienable rights with which they were endowed by their Creator. To this end, sovereignty rests solely with the state. It is no longer the duty or therefore within the sphere of influence of the USA to punish a conspiracy, unlawful imprisonment or murder within a state, then it would be like a punishment for unlawful imprisonment, or murder itself. "(English: " The very highest duty of the States, when they entered into the Union under the Constitution, was to protect all persons within their boundaries in the enjoyment of these 'unalienable rights with which they were endowed by their Creator.' Sovereignty, for this purpose, rests alone with the States. It is no more the duty or within the power of the United States to punish for a conspiracy to falsely imprison or murder within a State, than it would be to punish for false imprisonment or murder itself. " ) The order completely ignored the Text and intent of Amendment 14 and helped expand the Jim Crow era.

He participated in the majority decisions in the Head Money Cases (1884) and the Ku Klux Case ( United States v. Harris , (1882)), as well as in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) and the Juillard v. Greenman (1883). The most important cases he had to decide were the Enforcement Act Cases (1875), the Sinking Fund Case (1878), the Railroad Commission Cases (1886) and the Telephone Cases (1887).

Web links

Commons : Morrison R. Waite - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

personal data
SURNAME	Waite, Morrison R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Waite, Morrison Remick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American judge
DATE OF BIRTH	November 29, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lyme , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH	March 23, 1888
Place of death	Washington, DC