Pierce Butler (judge)

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Pierce Butler

Pierce Butler (* 17th March 1866 in Pine Bend , Minnesota ; † 16th November 1939 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer , who during his many years as a judge at the Supreme Court of the United States ( US Supreme Court ) because of its Conservative views shaped by Catholicism belonged to the so-called Four Horsemen of the Supreme Court at the time of the New Deal . Butler was one of 14 Catholic judges among the 113 Supreme Court members appointed to date.

Life

Lawyer and Public Prosecutor

The butler, who comes from an Irish immigrant family, studied at Carleton College after attending school , graduated from Carleton College in 1887 and joined the Phi Kappa Psi academic association while studying . After his admission to the bar in the state of Minnesota in 1888, he took up a practice as a lawyer in the law firm Pinch and Twohy .

After he was deputy district attorney in Ramsey County from 1891 to 1893 , he took over the post of district attorney in that county from 1893 to 1897 . He was then a partner in the law firm How & Butler from 1897 to 1899 , before serving as legal advisor and chief legal advisor to the Chicago & St. Paul Railroad between 1899 and 1905 . Subsequently, Butler, who was temporarily also a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota, was an attorney in the law firm Jared How and was elected President of the Minnesota State Bar Association in 1908 .

Between 1912 and 1922 he worked successfully as a lawyer for several North American railroad companies and won, among other things, 12 million US dollars for the shareholders of the Toronto Street Railway .

US Supreme Court judge

The Supreme Court Justices in the cast of 1925
James McReynolds (seated 1st from left)
Willis Van Devanter (seated 2nd from right)
George Sutherland (standing 2nd from left)
Pierce Butler (standing 2nd from right)

On December 21, 1922, Pierce, who was close to the Democratic Party , was appointed Assistant Justice at the US Supreme Court by Republican President Warren G. Harding and officially took office on January 2, 1923. His appointment as the successor to William R. Day previously sparked controversy, since he was accused of his open rejections by "radical" and "disloyal" professors at the University of Minnesota. Nevertheless, he received a broad approval of 61 votes in the US Senate , while five Democratic ( Walter F. George , William J. Harris , James Thomas Heflin , Morris Sheppard and Park Trammell ) and three Republican senators ( Robert M. La Follette , Peter Norbeck and George W. Norris ) voted against his appeal.

During his tenure as Associate Justice , which lasted until his death , he belonged to the judges group of the Four Horsemen together with James C. McReynolds , George Sutherland and Willis Van Devanter during the time of the New Deal . Characteristic of their joint work was a distinctly conservative political stance and, from the beginning of the 1930s, their bitter rejection of the economic and social reforms of the government of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . In their rejection of the New Deal legislation, the Four Horsemen faced the three liberal judges Louis Brandeis , Benjamin N. Cardozo and Harlan Fiske Stone , so that in this constellation the voting behavior of the two judges is decisive for the decisions of the court, which consists of nine judges that were not assigned to either of the two blocks. Of the two, presiding judge Charles Evans Hughes mostly agreed with the three liberal judges, while Owen Roberts often leaned on the four conservative judges. The era of the Four Horsemen ended in 1937 with the withdrawal of Willis Van Devanter and George Sutherland from the court and the appointment of progressive successors by Roosevelt.

Significant decisions by the US Supreme Court

Butler served on several significant decisions during his time on the Supreme Court including:

  • In the Meyer v. In Nebraska (1923) the US Supreme Court ruled that a regulation prohibiting schooling in a modern, but non-English language, violated the 14th Amendment to the United States' Constitution. Butler joined the majority opinion written by McReynolds.
  • In the Buck v. Bell (1927), the Supreme Court confirmed that a law for the compulsory sterilization of "unfit" such as people with intellectual disabilities in the state of Virginia was appropriate for "the protection and health of a state". The verdict was largely seen as a supreme court approval of negative eugenics and an attempt to improve the human race by eliminating "defects". Butler was the only judge to disagree.
  • In the United States v. Schwimmer (1929) he wrote the majority opinion of the court, which was accepted with six to three judges votes. In the naturalization procedure for the Hungarian- born plaintiff, the court ruled that pacifists cannot have the disposition and commitment to the US Constitution that foreign nationals require for naturalization.
  • In the Palko v. Connecticut (1937) the Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition of double punishment guaranteed by the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution ( Ne bis in idem ( Double Jeopardy ) ) did not become a fundamental right in the individual states by the 14th Amendment. Butler was the only judge who gave a dissenting decision. The judgment was made in 1969 by the decision in the Benton v. Maryland modified.

After his death from cystitis , Butler was buried in Calvary Cemetery , Saint Paul . He was then followed by the previous US Attorney General Frank Murphy as associate judge.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Religious Affiliation of the US Supreme Court (Note: Judges Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan appointed after the date of reference (January 31, 2006) are Catholic and Jewish, respectively )
personal data
SURNAME Butler, Pierce
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Pine Bend , Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1939
Place of death Washington, DC