Wiley Rutledge

Wiley Rutledge
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office February 11, 1943 – September 10, 1949
Nominated by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	James F. Byrnes
Succeeded by	Sherman Minton
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
In office May 2, 1939 – February 14, 1943
Nominated by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded by	Seat established by 52 Stat. 584
Succeeded by	Thurman Arnold
Personal details
Born	Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr. (1894-07-20)July 20, 1894 Cloverport, Kentucky
Died	September 10, 1949(1949-09-10) (aged 55) York, Maine
Political party	Democratic
Education	Maryville College University of Wisconsin–Madison (BA) Indiana University Maurer School of Law University of Colorado Law School (LLB)

Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr. (July 20, 1894 – September 10, 1949) was an American educator and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and previously was a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Early life and education[]

Rutledge was born in Cloverport, Kentucky (more specifically, at nearby Tar Springs) to Wiley Blount Rutledge Sr. (d. 1944), a Southern Baptist minister,^[1] and Mary Lou Wigginton Rutledge (d. 1903). After a brother died in infancy, Wiley's sister Margaret was born in 1897. His family moved about while he was young. He attended Maryville College for two years before transferring to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from which he graduated in 1914 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Rutledge taught high school in Indiana while attending the present-day Indiana University Maurer School of Law part-time. He later moved to Colorado, and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1922 from the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder.^[2] While matriculating at Colorado, Rutledge joined the Pi chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.^{[citation needed]}

Marriage and family[]

The year he graduated from law school, on August 28, 1917, Rutledge married Annabel Person. The couple had three children: Mary Lou (1922), Jean Ann (1925), and Neal (1927).^[3] Rutledge was the great-great-grandson of Edward Rutledge, South Carolina politician and the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence.^[4] Edward Rutledge's brother, John Rutledge, was a South Carolina delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and twice nominated by President George Washington to the United States Supreme Court.

Career[]

Rutledge entered private practice in Boulder from 1922 to 1924. He was an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado from 1924 to 1926. He was a Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law from 1926 to 1935, serving as Acting Dean in 1930 and as Dean from 1931 to 1935.^[2] That school's Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition is named in his honor.^[5][6] He was a Professor of Law and Dean of the University of Iowa College of Law from 1935 to 1939.^[6] From this position, Rutledge was a vocal supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court.^[7]

Federal judicial service[]

Rutledge was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 21, 1939, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (now the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit), to a new Associate Justice seat authorized by 52 Stat. 584.^[6] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 4, 1939, and received his commission on May 2, 1939.^[2] His service terminated on February 14, 1943, due to his elevation to the Supreme Court.^[2]

Rutledge was nominated by President Roosevelt on January 11, 1943, to the Supreme Court of the United States, to an Associate Justice seat vacated by Associate Justice James F. Byrnes.^[8] He was confirmed by the Senate on February 8, 1943, and received his commission on February 11, 1943.^[2] He served as Circuit Justice for the Eighth Circuit and Tenth Circuit from March 1, 1943 to September 10, 1949.^[2] Rutledge was significantly less conservative than Byrnes and he remained a steady ally of Roosevelt throughout his court career.^[8] Rutledge was still serving on the court when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 55 on September 10, 1949.^[9]

Judicial philosophy[]

Rutledge articulated strong liberal positions, particularly in his interpretation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He wrote for the court in 1946 in Kotteakos v. United States that "our Government is not one of mere convenience or efficiency. It too has a stake, with every citizen, in his being afforded our historic individual protections, including those surrounding criminal trials. About them we dare not become careless or complacent when that fashion has become rampant over the earth."^[10]

Rutledge extended this position to dissent from the Court's decision in Yamashita v. Styer, in which Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita filed for habeas corpus to appeal his conviction for war crimes in World War II. He wrote:^[11]

More is at stake than General Yamashita's fate. There could be no possible sympathy for him if he is guilty of the atrocities for which his death is sought. But there can be and should be justice administered according to the law ... It is not too early, it is never too early, for the nation steadfastly to follow its great constitutional traditions, none older or more universally protective against unbridled power than due process of law in the trial and punishment of men, that is, of all men, whether citizens, aliens, alien enemies or enemy belligerents.

According to Justice Frankfurter, Rutledge was part of the more liberal "axis" of justices on the Court, along with Justices Murphy, Douglas, and Black; the group would for years oppose Frankfurter's ideology of judicial restraint.^[12] Douglas, Murphy, and then Rutledge were the first justices to agree with Black's notion that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Bill of Rights protection into it; this view would later become law.^[13]

Law clerks[]

One of Rutledge's law clerks, John Paul Stevens, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1975.^[14] His tenure on the Court influenced Justice Stevens, who had helped Rutledge draft his dissent in Ahrens v. Clark. In 1948, a 6—3 majority of the Supreme Court ruled that unless detained persons are within the physical jurisdiction of the District Court when they petition for a writ of habeas corpus, that court has no jurisdiction to hear the case. Rutledge dissented, arguing that instead of the jurisdiction deriving from the location of the prisoner, it should instead derive from the custodian, the person responsible for the imprisonment. John Paul Stevens later tracked this case and its application to case law. In 1973, the Supreme Court substantially overturned Ahrens, ruling similarly to how Rutledge would have. Justice Rutledge's views were formally endorsed by the Supreme Court in 2004, when Justice John Stevens ruled in Rasul v. Bush that courts were to consider the location of the custodian, rather than the physical location of the prisoner themselves. This ruling allowed detainees in Guantanamo Bay to sue in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for a writ of habeas corpus.^[15][16]

Another of his law clerks was Louis H. Pollak, who became a federal judge and dean of Yale Law School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Death[]

On August 27, 1949, Rutledge was vacationing in Maine. He had a stroke while driving his car and died two weeks later in York, Maine.^[3][17][18] His remains are interred at Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado.^[19]

See also[]

References[]

Sources[]

• Data drawn in part from the Supreme Court Historical Society and Oyez.
• Justice Rutledge's papers are archived at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and available to researchers.

Further reading[]

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3.
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1-56802-126-7.
• Ferren, John M. (2004). Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court: The Story of Justice Wiley Rutledge. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2866-1.
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L. (eds.). The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0-7910-1377-4.
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0-87187-554-3.
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0-8153-1176-1.

External links[]

• Wiley B. Rutledge at Supreme Court Historical Society.
• Oyez, U.S. Supreme Court media, Wiley Blount Rutledge.
• Wiley Rutledge at Find a Grave

Legal offices
Preceded by Seat established by 52 Stat. 584	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 1939–1943	Succeeded by Thurman Arnold
Preceded by James F. Byrnes	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1943–1949	Succeeded by Sherman Minton

show   Supreme Court of the United States

The Stone Court Chief Justice: Harlan Fiske Stone (1941–46) 1943–1945: O. J. Roberts H. Black S. F. Reed F. Frankfurter Wm. O. Douglas F. Murphy R. H. Jackson W. B. Rutledge 1945–1946: H. Black S. F. Reed F. Frankfurter Wm. O. Douglas F. Murphy R. H. Jackson W. B. Rutledge H. H. Burton The Vinson Court Chief Justice: Frederick Moore Vinson (1946–53) 1946–1949: H. Black S. F. Reed F. Frankfurter Wm. O. Douglas F. Murphy R. H. Jackson W. B. Rutledge H. H. Burton 1949: H. Black S. F. Reed F. Frankfurter Wm. O. Douglas R. H. Jackson W. B. Rutledge H. H. Burton T. C. Clark