Rufus Wheeler Peckham

(b. Albany, N.Y., 8 Nov. 1838; d. Altamont, N.Y., 24 Oct. 1909; interred Rural Cemetery, Albany), associate justice, 1895–1909. Rufus Peckham came from a prominent New York family of lawyers and judges. He was educated at Albany Boys Academy, studied abroad, and received an honorary degree from Columbia University in 1866. Peckham read law in his father's Albany office and was admitted to the bar in 1859. In private practice he represented mostly corporate clients and established himself as an influential member of the community and Democratic Party. He served as district attorney for Albany County from 1869 to 1872. In 1883 he won election to the New York Supreme Court (the state's lower court). In 1886, Peckham was elected to the state's highest tribunal, the Court of Appeals, where he remained until President Grover Cleveland nominated him to the United States Supreme Court in 1895.

Cleveland's nomination of Peckham followed an attempt to place his brother, Wheeler Peckham, on the high court. Both brothers were connected with the upstate faction of the New York Democratic party, supporters of Grover Cleveland, and often in conflict with the New York Democratic machine led by U.S. Senator David Hill. Even though Cleveland won the presidency in 1892, the Hill faction remained strong in state politics. They claimed success in placing a Democrat in the governor's office and taking over both houses of the state legislature. In 1893, when Cleveland had the opportunity to fill a place on the Court, he selected William B. Hornblower. Hill invoked senatorial courtesy and Hornblower's nomination was defeated. Cleveland's next choice was Wheeler Peckham, whose nomination was also defeated. Finally the president and Senate agreed on Louisiana Senator Edward White. In 1895 Cleveland had a second opportunity to make an appointment to the Supreme Court and, on 3 December he nominated Rufus Peckham. By this time New York Democrats had suffered major defeats in the previous state elections. Less confident of his strength, Hill acquiesced to the nomination. Rufus Peckham was confirmed on 12 December 1895 and kept his seat on the United States Supreme Court until his death in 1909.

During his thirteen years on the bench, Peckham wrote 315 opinions. Few of them were of lasting importance. Although not as visible as some of his colleagues, Peckham was one of the Court's most consistent advocates of laissez‐faire constitutionalism. His disdain for government regulation was apparent even while he sat on the New York bench. Dissenting in People v. Walsh (1889), for example, he called a law that regulated grain elevators “vicious in its nature and communistic in its tendency” (p. 695).

In an era of conservative judicial activism Peckham soon became a mainstay of the Court's conservatives. His first opinion of note was Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897), in which the Supreme Court adopted “liberty of contract” as a limit on state regulatory authority (see Contract, Freedom of). This doctrine provided a rather open‐ended standard against which the court could test the validity of legislation. Peckham refined its application in his most well‐known opinion, Lochner v. New York (1905). There he ruled that a state law limiting the length of the workday for bakers violated the liberty of contract of both the employee and employer. Peckham emphasized that the state's police power—the source of its authority to interfere with individual liberty—was limited to protecting public morals, health, safety, and welfare. He held that the workday limitation could not reasonably be considered a health law and was therefore invalid. Peckham believed federal authority to legislate economic regulations should be limited in the same manner. In Champion v. Ames (1903) he joined a dissent that urged that Congress could not prohibit sale of lottery tickets through the mail.

Shortly before Peckham came to the Court the Sherman Antitrust Act was significantly weakened by judicial interpretation in the Sugar Trust Case, U.S. v. E.C. Knight (1895). In a series of his early opinions, U.S. v. Trans‐Missouri Freight Association (1897), U.S. v. Joint Traffic Association (1898), and Addyston Pipe and Steel v. U.S. (1899), Peckham restored some of the federal government's power to combat monopoly. These decisions indicate that, while Peckham's record undoubtedly reflects a business orientation, the focus of his concern was individual economic liberty.

See also Due Process, Substantive.

Bibliography

• Skolnik, Richard, Rufus Peckham, in The Justices of the United States, Supreme Court, 1789–1969, edited by Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, vol. 3 (1969), pp. 1685–1703

— Paul Kens

• Born: Nov. 8, 1838, Albany, N.Y.
• Education: studied law in his father's law firm
• Previous government service: district attorney, Albany County, N.Y., 1869–72; judge, New York Supreme Court, 1883–86; judge, New York Court of Appeals, 1886–95
• Appointed by President Grover Cleveland Dec. 3, 1895; replaced Howell Jackson, who died
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Dec. 9, 1895, by a voice vote; served until Oct. 24, 1909
• Died: Oct. 24, 1909, Altamont, N.Y.

Rufus W. Peckham was named to the Supreme Court in 1895. In the previous year, his brother, Wheeler H. Peckham, had been nominated by President Grover Cleveland and rejected by the Senate. The Senate, however, readily confirmed Rufus Peckham's nomination.

During his 13 years on the Court, Justice Peckham favored property rights and contract rights of individuals. He usually opposed state government regulation of businesses and working conditions in favor of economic liberty. His most notable opinion for the Court was in Lochner v. New York (1905). He ruled that a New York law limiting the length of the workday for bakers was unconstitutional because it violated the rights of workers and employers to freely make contracts.

See also Lochner v. New York

Peckham, Rufus Wheeler (pĕk'əm) , 1838–1909, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1895–1909), b. Albany, N.Y. Admitted (1859) to the bar, he became a leading Albany lawyer and was prominent in local Democratic politics. He served on the state supreme court (1883–86) and on the state court of appeals (1886–95) before he was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to the U.S. Supreme Court. A zealous defender of property rights, he ruled in the famous case of Lochner v. New York (1905) that a maximum-hours law was unconstitutional.

Rufus Wheeler Peckham served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1895 to 1909. A prominent New York attorney and judge, Peckham was a conservative judge who believed that state and federal government had limited authority to regulate business activity. He expressed this belief most clearly in Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 25 S. Ct. 539, 49 L. Ed. 937 (1905), a case that is best remembered for the dissent of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Peckham was born in Albany, New York, on November 8, 1838, into a family of prominent lawyers and judges. He attended private schools and studied abroad as a young man. He read the law in his father's Albany law office and was admitted to the New York bar in 1859, following the lead of his older brother, Wheeler Hazard Peckham. After almost ten years in private practice, he began his career in New York government in 1868 when he became district attorney of Albany County. He served until 1872.

An active participant in New York State Democratic party politics, Peckham and his brother Wheeler were aligned with the upstate wing of the party, which was often in conflict with the New York City faction that was dominated by the corrupt Tammany Hall regime. Wheeler Peckham was instrumental in the 1873 prosecution of the Tweed Ring, the Tammany machine run by William M. ("Boss") Tweed. His efforts would later hurt his legal career.

From 1880 to 1881, Rufus Peckham served as corporation counsel for the city of Albany. In 1883 he was elected to the New York Supreme Court (the state's trial court), and in 1886 he was appointed to the New York Court of Appeals (the state's highest court). In 1895 President Grover Cleveland nominated Peckham to the U.S. Supreme Court. This followed Cleveland's unsuccessful attempt to appoint Wheeler Peckham to the High Court in 1894. The appointment of Wheeler Peckham failed when New York Senators Edward Murphy, Jr., and David Bennett Hill, both aligned with the New York City Democratic machine, blocked the nomination.

Rufus Peckham had little trouble winning confirmation. He joined a Supreme Court that was generally hostile to attempts by state and federal government to regulate business and the economy. Peckham fit right in. In Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578, 17 S. Ct. 427, 41 L. Ed. 832 (1897), he wrote the majority opinion that struck down a Louisiana insurance law as being a violation of the federal Due Process Clause. He enunciated the doctrine of "liberty of contract" as a limit on state regulation of business. Government could not limit a person from entering "into all contracts which may be proper, necessary, and essential" to the conduct of a person's life.

Peckham reaffirmed liberty of contract in Lochner. In his majority opinion, Peckham held that a New York State law that limited bakers to no more than ten hours of work a day violated the "liberty of contract" guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, which provided that no state was to "deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law." The state's power to regulate was restricted to matters of health, safety, and welfare. In Peckham's view the restriction of hours did not fit into any of these three areas and therefore the law unconstitutionally interfered with the right of bakers and bakery companies to negotiate work hours and work conditions. Justice Holmes, in his dissent, castigated Peckham and the majority for reading into the Constitution their particular economic theory and for not practicing judicial restraint.

Despite Peckham's opposition to government regulation, he did support antitrust laws. This was consistent, in his view, with maintaining individual economic liberty. He articulated his support and helped restore some of the authority of federal antitrust efforts in United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association, 166 U.S. 290, 17 S. Ct. 540, 41 L. Ed. 1007 (1897), United States v. Joint-Traffic Association, 171 U.S. 505, 19 S. Ct. 25, 43 L. Ed. 259 (1898), and Addyston Pipe & Steel Company v. United States, 175 U.S. 211, 20 S. Ct. 96, 44 L. Ed. 136 (1899).

Peckham died on October 24, 1909, in Altamont, New York.

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