William R. Day
William R. Day | |
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| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office February 23, 1903 – November 13, 1922 | |
| Nominated by | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | George Shiras Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Pierce Butler |
| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit | |
| In office February 28, 1899 – February 23, 1903 | |
| Nominated by | William McKinley |
| Preceded by | Seat established by 30 Stat. 803 |
| Succeeded by | John K. Richards |
| Judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit | |
| In office February 28, 1899 – February 23, 1903 | |
| Nominated by | William McKinley |
| Preceded by | Seat established by 30 Stat. 803 |
| Succeeded by | John K. Richards |
| 36th United States Secretary of State | |
| In office April 28, 1898 – September 16, 1898 | |
| President | William McKinley |
| Preceded by | John Sherman |
| Succeeded by | John Hay |
| United States Assistant Secretary of State | |
| In office May 11, 1897 – April 27, 1898 | |
| President | William McKinley |
| Preceded by | William Woodville Rockhill |
| Succeeded by | John Bassett Moore |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Rufus Day April 17, 1849 Ravenna, Ohio |
| Died | July 9, 1923 (aged 74) Mackinac Island, Michigan |
| Resting place | West Lawn Cemetery Canton, Ohio |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Elizabeth Schaefer (m. 1875–1912, her death) |
| Children | William Louis Day Stephen A. Day |
| Parents | Luther Day Emily (Spaulding) Day |
| Education | University of Michigan (BS) |
| Signature |  |
William Rufus Day (April 17, 1849 – July 9, 1923) was an American diplomat and jurist, who served for nineteen years as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to his service on the Supreme Court, Day served as the 36th United States Secretary of State during the administration of President William McKinley and also served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit.
Education and career[]
Day was born in Ravenna, Ohio,[1] one of the children of Emily (Spaulding) Day and Judge Luther Day of the Ohio Supreme Court.[2] He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan in 1870,[1] spent a year studying law with attorney and judge George F. Robinson,[3] and then a year at the University of Michigan Law School.[1] He was admitted to the bar in 1872 and settled in Canton, Ohio, where he began practicing law[1] in partnership with William A. Lynch.[2] For twenty-five years, Day worked as a criminal defense and corporate lawyer in the growing industrial town while participating in Republican politics.[2]
During these years, Day became a good friend of William McKinley.[2] Day became McKinley's legal and political adviser during McKinley's candidacies for the Congress, the Governorship of Ohio, and the Presidency of the United States.[2] After he won the Presidency, McKinley appointed Day to be Assistant Secretary of State under Secretary of State John Sherman.[1] Sherman was considered to be ineffective because of declining health and failing memory,[2] and in 1898, President McKinley replaced Sherman with Day.[1]
Five months later, Day vacated his cabinet position to helm the United States Peace Commission formed to negotiate an end to the Spanish–American War with Spain.[4] After the Spanish–American War was declared, Day had argued that the Spanish colonies, other than Cuba, should be returned to Spain, contrary to McKinley's decision that the United States should take over from Spain control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.[3] Day, however, negotiated peace with Spain on McKinley's harsher terms.[3] His final diplomatic effort was to lead the United States Peace Commission into Paris, France and sign the Treaty of Paris ending the war.[3] He was succeeded at the Department of State by John Hay.[3]
Court of Appeals and Circuit Courts service[]
Day received a recess appointment from President Benjamin Harrison to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on May 24, 1889, but declined the appointment.[1]
Day was nominated by President William McKinley on February 25, 1899, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit, to a new joint seat authorized by 30 Stat. 803.[1] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 28, 1899, and received his commission the same day.[1] His service terminated on February 23, 1903, due to his elevation to the Supreme Court.[1]
Supreme Court service[]
McKinley was assassinated in September 1901 and the Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him as president.[5] In 1903, George Shiras Jr. resigned from the United States Supreme Court and Roosevelt offered his Associate Justice position to William Howard Taft.[5] Taft declined in order to remain in his post as governor of the Philippines.[5] In February, Roosevelt nominated Day, who accepted.[5] The United States Senate confirmed the nomination on February 23, 1903, and Day received his commission the same day.[5] He assumed his seat on March 2, 1903.[1] He served as Circuit Justice for the Seventh Circuit from March 9, 1903, to March 17, 1912, and as Circuit Justice for the Sixth Circuit from March 18, 1912, to November 13, 1922.[1]
Notable cases[]
Day wrote 439 opinions during his tenure on the court, of which only 18 were dissents.[5] He distrusted large corporations and voted with antitrust majorities throughout his time on the court.[5] He sided with the government in the Standard Oil, American Tobacco, and Union Pacific cases in 1911 and 1912 and again in the Southern Pacific case in 1922.[5]
Day delivered the opinion of the Court in Weeks v. United States, where the highest Court ruled that the warrantless seizure of documents from a private home violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and evidence obtained in this manner is excluded from use in federal criminal prosecutions.
Baseball[]
Day was an avid baseball fan.[6] He is recorded as asking his clerk for "regular updates" during the bench hearing of Standard Sanitary Mfg. Co. v. United States about the final game of the 1912 World Series.[7]
Retirement and death[]
Day retired from the court on November 13, 1922,[1] and briefly served as an Umpire of the Mixed Claims Commission to Adjudicate War Claims against Germany.[1] He died on July 9, 1923, on Mackinac Island in Michigan, aged 74.[1] He was interred at West Lawn Cemetery in Canton.[8]
Family[]
In 1875, Day married Mary Elizabeth Schaefer.[2] They were married until her death in 1912, and were the parents of four sons: William, Rufus, Stephen, and Luther.[2] His sons were appellate lawyers who litigated cases before the Supreme Court.[9]
Selected opinions authored by Day[]
- Ware & Leland v. Mobile County, 209 U.S. 405 (1908) – held that contracts for the sales of cotton for future delivery that do not oblige interstate shipments are not subjects of interstate commerce
- Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339 (1908) – helped establish "first-sale doctrine" in United States copyright law
- Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346 (1911) – held that there must be an actual controversy between parties for the Federal courts to have jurisdiction
- Flint v. Stone Tracy Co., 220 U.S. 107 (1911) – held privilege of operating in corporate form justifies imposition of an income tax
- Bauer & Cie. v. O'Donnell, 229 U.S. 1 (1913) – held that patent rights could not be extended by the holder by means of a licensing agreement
- Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383 (1914) – held that exclusionary rule is applicable to the federal government for violations of the Fourth Amendment
- Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917) – held that municipal ordinances segregating neighborhoods were unconstitutional
- Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (1918) – held that laws regulating child labor are beyond the scope of Congress's constitutional power under the commerce clause
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o William Rufus Day at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Cushman, Clare, The Supreme Court Historical Society, ed. (2012). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies. CQ Press: Thousand Oaks, CA. pp. 263–265. ISBN 978-1-6087-1833-7 – via Google Books.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Mihalkanin, Edward S., ed. (2004). American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 149–159. ISBN 978-0-3133-0828-4 – via Google Books.
- ^ "William Rufus Day". law.jrank.org.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "Profile: The Honorable William R. Day". MILaw. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Law School. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
- ^ Ross E. Davies. "A Crank on the Court: The Passion of Justice William R. Day". SSRN 1555017. Cite journal requires
|journal=(help) - ^ The First Fall Classic (2009), ISBN 978-0-385-52624-1, Mike Vaccaro, page 233
- ^ Moore, Gay Morgan (2009). Postcard History Series: Canton. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-7385-6029-8 – via Google Books.
- ^ Cushman, Clare (2021). "Father on the Bench: Justice William R. Day and Kinship Recusal". Journal of Supreme Court History. 46 (1): 62–80. doi:10.1111/jsch.12257. ISSN 1540-5818.
Sources[]
- William Rufus Day at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- McLean, Joseph E. William Rufus Day: Supreme Court Justice from Ohio. The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science 64. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1946.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Rufus Day. |
- William R. Day at Find a Grave
- William R. Day at The Political Graveyard
- William R. Day biography at The Ohio Judicial Court
- William R. Day biography at Michael Ariens
- William R. Day biography at The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- William R. Day biography at The Raven Hall of Fame
- William R. Day biography at The United States State Department
- William R. Day biography at The Hall of the Secretaries of State
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- 1849 births
- 1923 deaths
- 19th-century American judges
- 19th-century American politicians
- 20th-century American judges
- American Lutherans
- Burials at West Lawn Cemetery
- Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- McKinley administration cabinet members
- Ohio lawyers
- Ohio Republicans
- People from Ravenna, Ohio
- People of the Spanish–American War
- Lawyers from Canton, Ohio
- United States Assistant Secretaries of State
- United States federal judges appointed by Theodore Roosevelt
- United States federal judges appointed by William McKinley
- United States Secretaries of State
- Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- University of Michigan Law School alumni