Pierce Butler (justice)
Pierce Butler ( born March 17, 1866 in Pine Bend, Minnesota, † November 16, 1939 in Washington, DC) was an American lawyer, who during his long career as a judge on the United States Supreme Court ( U.S. Supreme Court ) because of its influenced by Catholicism conservative views in the New Deal era of the so-called Four Horsemen of the Supreme Court was one. Butler was one of 14 Catholic judges among today appointed 113 members of the Supreme Court.
Life
Lawyer and Attorney
A native of an Irish immigrant family Butler studied post-school at Carleton College, this graduated in 1887 and joined while studying the academic connection Phi Kappa Psi. After his legal approval in the state of Minnesota in 1888, he took up a career as a lawyer at the law firm pinch and Twohy.
After he was 1891-1893 Deputy District Attorney in Ramsey County, he took over after 1893 to 1897 the office of the district attorney in this county. After that, he was from 1897 to 1899 Partner of the law firm How & Butler, before he served 1899-1905 as legal counsel and legal chief counsel of the Chicago & St. Paul Railroad. Following was Butler, who was also a member of the Board of Directors ( Board of Regents ) of the University of Minnesota at times, a lawyer at Jared how and in 1908 as President of the Bar Association of Minnesota (Minnesota State Bar Association) selected.
Between 1912 and 1922 he was successful as a lawyer for several North American railroad companies and successfully fought among others, 12 million U.S. dollars for the shareholders of the Toronto Street Railway.
Judge of the U.S. Supreme Court
On December 21, 1922 Pierce, who was close to the Democratic Party, was appointed by U.S. President Warren G. Harding as Assistant Judge at the United States Supreme Court and officially took office on January 2, 1923. His appointment as the successor to William R. Day broke before a controversy because it 's open rejection of "radical" and " disloyal " professors were accused at the University of Minnesota. Nevertheless, he was in the U.S. Senate a broad consensus of 61 votes, 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 appointment.
During his last until his death working as Associate Justice, he was, together with James C. McReynolds, George Sutherland, and Willis Van Devanter during the time of the New Deal to the Jury of the Four Horsemen. Characteristic of their joint work was a pronounced conservative political stance and from the beginning of the 1930s the fierce rejection of economic and social reforms of the administration of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Four Horsemen were in their rejection of the New Deal legislation, the three liberal judges Louis Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo and Harlan Fiske Stone opposite, so that in this constellation, the voting behavior of two judges decisive for the decisions of the existing nine-judge Court was regarded as belonging to either of the two blocks. Of these two, the presiding judge Charles Evans Hughes agreed mostly with the three liberal judges, while Owen Roberts often tended to the four conservative judges. The era of the Four Horsemen ended in 1937 with the withdrawal of Willis Van Devanter and George Sutherland by the Court and the appointment of successors progressively set by Roosevelt.
Significant decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
Butler appeared in his time at the Supreme Court with several important decisions such as:
- In the process of Meyer v. Nebraska ( 1923), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a regulation that prohibits education in a modern, but non-English language, violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Butler joined it to the majority opinion written by McReynolds.
- In the process of Buck v. Bell ( 1927), the Supreme Court confirmed that a law for the compulsory sterilization of " unfit " (' Unfit ') is how people with intellectual disabilities in the state of Virginia suitable for the "protection and the health of a state." The judgment was widely seen as the supreme court approval of a negative eugenics and as an attempt to improve the human race by eliminating " defects ". Butler took the only judge dissented.
- In the process, United States v. Schwimmer (1929 ), he wrote the majority opinion of the Court, which was adopted with six to three judges. In the process of naturalization of the Hungarian- plaintiff, the court ruled that pacifists can not have the facility and the dedication to the U.S. Constitution as it is required at a naturalization of foreign nationals.
- In the process of Palko v. Connecticut ( 1937) the Supreme Court ruled that by the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteed the prohibition of double jeopardy ( ne bis in idem (double jeopardy ) ) not by the 14th Amendment a fundamental right was in the individual federal states. Butler was the only judge who took a different decision. The sentence was modified in 1969 by the decision in the procedure Benton v. Maryland.
After his death, as a result of cystitis Butler was buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Saint Paul. Following him, the former U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy followed as Assistant Judge.