William Johnson (judge)

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William Johnson

William Johnson (born December 17 or 27, 1771 in Charleston , South Carolina , † August 4, 1834 in New York City ) was an American lawyer and judge at the Supreme Court of the United States .

Family and youth

Johnson's father, William Johnson Sr., was a fighter in the American Revolutionary War . For this reason he was exiled to St. Augustine by Henry Clinton . His mother Sarah Nightingale also took part in the revolution. “During the Siege of Charleston, she stuffed her petticoats with cartridges to bring to her husband.” Johnson graduated from Princeton University in 1790 with a law degree . After further training with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney , Johnson was admitted to the bar in 1793. In 1794 he married Sarah Bennett. With her he had a daughter, Anna Hayes Johnson, who later married Romulus Mitchell Saunders .

Work as a politician

From 1794 to 1798 Johnson represented his hometown Charleston as a member of the Democratic Republican Party in the House of Representatives of South Carolina , from 1796 as its spokesman. In 1798 he was appointed a judge on the newly formed South Carolina Supreme Court .

Work as a federal judge

On March 22, 1804, Thomas named Jefferson Johnson as a candidate for Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court. He was ratified by the United States Senate on March 24, 1804 and succeeded Alfred Moore two days later . Johnson was the first of three federal judges appointed by Jefferson. During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Johnson always championed his opinion. While John Marshall was able to gather the majority of the judges behind him as chairman, Johnson developed the reputation as a representative of dissenting opinion . In 1808, Johnson's independence came to the fore when he defied the instructions of Attorney General Caesar A. Rodney and Thomas Jeffersons for believing the executive should not be in control of maritime trade issues. During the dispute over the nullification doctrine , which lasted from 1831 to 1833, Johnson tried to maintain his independence by giving up his residence in South Carolina in order to avoid public pressure. In 1810 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society .

Johnson died in 1834 after a jaw operation. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Philip's Church in Charleston.

further reading

  • Henry J. Abraham: Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court , 3rd. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, New York 1992, ISBN 0-19-506557-3 .
  • Clare Cushman, The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995 , 2nd. Edition, (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books), 2001, ISBN 1-56802-126-7 .
  • Flanders, Henry. The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court . Philadelphia: JB Lippincott & Co., 1874 on Google Books .
  • John P. Frank: Leon Friedman, Fred L. Israel (Eds.): The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions . Chelsea House Publishers, 1995, ISBN 0-7910-1377-4 .
  • Kermit L. Hall (Ed.): The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States . Oxford University Press, New York 1992, ISBN 0-19-505835-6 .
  • Fenton S. Martin, Goehlert, Robert U .: The US Supreme Court: A Bibliography . Congressional Quarterly Books, Washington, DC 1990, ISBN 0-87187-554-3 .
  • Melvin I. Urofsky: The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary . Garland Publishing, New York 1994, ISBN 0-8153-1176-1 , p. 590.
  • White, G. Edward. The Marshall Court & Cultural Change, 1815-35. Abridged new edition, 1991.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johnson, Bradley T. "The Memoir of Jane Claudia Johnson." Southern Historical Society Papers, volume XXIX, 1901, p. 34.
  2. ^ Johnson, Bradley T. "The Memoir of Jane Claudia Johnson." Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXIX, 1901, p. 34.
  3. ↑ Hanson, George Adolphus. Old Kent: the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Notes Illustrative of the Most Ancient Records of Kent County, 1876, p. 57
  4. ^ Member History: William Johnson. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  5. ^ William Johnson in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved October 16, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, United States Supreme Court Justice
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1771 or December 27, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleston , South Carolina Province
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1834
Place of death New York City