Rufus Wheeler Peckham

Rufus Wheeler Peckham ( born November 8, 1838 in Albany, New York, † October 24, 1909 in Altamont, Albany County, New York) was an American jurist who was the last judge on the United States Supreme Court ( U.S. Supreme Court ).

Life

Studies and climb to the judge

Peckham, a son of the Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 14th Congressional District of New York and later judge of the New York Supreme Court and the New York Court of Appeals, attended the Albany Academy, and then studied law.

After his legal approval in the state of New York in 1859, he worked as a lawyer before he was 1869 District Attorney of Albany County. Upon completion of this activity, he took his legal career in 1872 again and was then from 1883 to 1886 as his father Judge of the New York Supreme Court and 1886-1895 at the New York Court of Appeals.

Judge of the U.S. Supreme Court

After the death of Howell Edmunds Jackson on August 8, 1895 Peckham was appointed by U.S. President Grover Cleveland on January 6, 1896 Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court and held this post until his death on October 4, 1909.

During his affiliation with the U.S. Supreme Court Peckham worked on the following major decisions:

• In the method of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895 ) the Supreme Court had to decide on the scheme established by the Wilson - Gorman Tariff Act Income Tax Act of 1894 ( Income Tax Act of 1894). The court ruled that introduced by that law not income taxes on interest, dividends and rents are direct taxes and that the law against the Constitution of the United States would run, as their survey must be carried out in the states in proportion to population.
• Plessy v. Ferguson in the process (1896 ), the court had to decide whether a law of the State of Louisiana, the separate compartments for citizens white and black skin color prescribed in railway trains, contrary to the U.S. Constitution. It decided that this was written by a Brown verdict with 7 to 1 judges vote and declared the provision of separate facilities for whites and blacks, under certain conditions permitted. That judgment was de facto the principle of separate but equal, ie "Separate but equal " established as the basis of racial segregation in the South. John Marshall Harlan took a minority opinion against this decision of principle. Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1954 was overruled by the judgment in the case of Brown v. Board of Education again.
• In the process of Lochner v. New York ( 1905) dealt with the constitutionality of a regulation of working time for bakers in the state of New York to sixty hours a week. In less than 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the New York regulation of working hours would constitute an unjustified restriction of the freedom to contract and thus would violate the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this method, Peckham wrote the majority opinion. Three years later, the court ruled in the process of Muller v. Oregon ( 1908) that the provisions contained in the Working Hours Act Oregon restricting the working hours of women would not violate the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, because the limitation of the strong state interest in protecting women's health is warranted.
• In the process of North American Cold Storage Co. v. Chicago ( 1908), the Supreme Court ruled that the State under its police power has the right to confiscate food and to destroy those who are unfit for human consumption and thus health or lebensgefährend. In pursuit of such an action is required by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, not that the subject whose property is destroyed, previously announced such a measure and is given the opportunity to comment. Rather, the person concerned had after the destruction of a right of action, which does not however include the ex parte condemnation of the issuing State officials. In this method, Peckham wrote again the majority opinion of the Court, while David Josiah Brewer took a deviating opinion.

Successor of Peckham, who was buried after his death at the Albany Rural Cemetery, Horace Harmon Lurton was. Peckham's older brother Wheeler Hazard Peckham was a prominent lawyer whose nomination by U.S. President Grover Cleveland was rejected as a judge on the U.S. Supreme Court as the successor of Samuel Blatchford on 16 February 1894 by the U.S. Senate by 41 to 32 votes.