Stephen Johnson Field

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(b. Haddam, Conn., 4 Nov. 1816; d. Washington, D.C., 9 Apr. 1899; interred Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington), associate justice, 1863–1897. Field was the sixth of nine children born to Submit Dickinson, a descendant of a long line of New England Puritans, and David Dudley Field, a strict Congregationalist minister who brought up his children to be pious Puritans. The family moved to Stock‐bridge, Massachusetts, when Stephen was still a baby. At thirteen he was sent to Turkey with his sister, whose husband was a missionary, and spent several years traveling in the Greek islands and residing in Athens, an experience that greatly broadened his outlook. As a seventeen‐year‐old youth he entered Williams College, where he was deeply influenced by the teachings of Mark Hopkins and from which he graduated at the top of his class in 1837. He read law in the New York office of his brother, David Dudley Field, who was fast becoming one of America's leading lawyers, and with whom he practiced law until 1848. Stephen also spent a year traveling in Europe with his father and other family members. Thus far, however, he had shown none of the leadership qualities that were to become so prominent later in his life.

A craving for excitement led him to voyage to California during the Gold Rush year of 1849. Instead of prospecting, however, he quickly entered legal practice and politics, becoming the equivalent of mayor‐plus‐judge in Marysville; he also became wealthy through real estate speculation and fees. Field emerged as a colorful and controversial character in the unsettled days of the little community, making enemies whose hostility would follow him even to the Supreme Court. Elected to the California state legislature in 1850, he was the major contributor to the civil and criminal laws it passed in 1851, which were widely copied in the western states. He served only one year, however, before being defeated in a race for the state senate in 1851. Turning his attention wholly to the practice of law, he quickly became one of the state's leading lawyers, and he was elected to the state supreme court in 1857.

In his six years on the state court Field achieved an enviable reputation, which traveled beyond the state's boundaries. He did not, however, cease to acquire enemies, both political and personal. Despite this, when Congress created a tenth Supreme Court seat, Field was the logical appointee. He was not only a well‐regarded lawyer and judge but also a strong Unionist (although a Democrat). A California appointment was thought to be particularly useful both politically and legally, for it might help to cement the new state to the Union and it would provide the Court with a member familiar with the distinctive characteristics of California mining and land law. He took his seat on the Court in December 1863.

Field sat on what was to become one of the strongest Supreme Courts in history. There has never been a quadrumvirate that has surpassed in ability that of Field, Samuel F. Miller, Joseph P. Bradley, and John Marshall Harlan. Each was stubborn, dogmatic, and intellectually arrogant, however—a situation that led to a high level of disagreement and dissent. No great case decided during Field's tenure was without a strong dissent, which greatly reduced the value of the Court's decisions as precedents. And, in fact, most of that Court's rulings have been reversed or modified over time.

Field's philosophy as a judge was dictated by an attachment to an ideal of inalienable rights that, however, did not have specifically to appear in the Constitution. He was, in other words, strongly result‐oriented: if he felt that a claimed right was inalienable he could find a place in the Constitution for it (usually the Fourteenth Amendment in state cases). His opinions are thus studded with dogmatic assertions that in many cases are not strongly supported by any constitutional provision.

Increasingly through the 1870s and 1880s Field came to believe in a rather extreme version of an inalienable right of property, protected from interference by the states by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This theory, known as “substantive due process” because it looks at substantive rights (especially the right to hold and use property) rather than process, was probably first suggested to Field when John A. Campbell used it in arguing for the rights of Louisiana butchers in the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873). Certainly he used it in his dissent in that case and enlarged on it in another dissent in Munn v. Illinois (1877). In the latter case he argued that Illinois could not regulate the prices charged by grain elevators. In both cases there is a strong natural law flavor to Field's arguments, which most of the justices shared to some extent; but the Californian had to campaign for twenty years before the Court's majority would accept the doctrine of substantive due process, and the Court would never carry it to the extent that Field probably would have wished. (See Due Process, Substantive.)

Field was thus the leader of the Court's movement toward reading laissez‐faire into the Constitution—a movement that reached its apogee in Harlan's opinion in Smyth v. Ames (1898), Rufus Peckham's opinion in Lochner v. New York (1905), and in various decisions of the Taft Court in the 1920s (See Laissez‐Faire Constitutionalism). Not content with providing such protection for the burgeoning large corporations of the day, Field went on to attempt to build bulwarks against federal action as well. A notorious example is his concurring opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895), in which he made plain his fear that a federal income tax would be but the first movement in a slide into communism. He also participated in the decision limiting the power of the federal government to break up monopolies (United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 1895), and of the Interstate Commerce Commission to prescribe railroad rates (Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway v. ICC, 1896). Using various arguments, he also argued against state regulation of railroads (e.g., in Stone v. Wisconsin, 1876), although he was often in the minority in such cases. In none of these areas were his arguments solidly grounded in the Constitution; he was reduced to hortatory statements based on the theory that private property is almost always to be protected: that is, that property is an inalienable right.

Like most judges, Field was not entirely consistent in his record of voting to protect private corporations. Notably, he was often ready to find them—especially railroads—liable for compensation to injured or killed workers under the common law “fellow servant” doctrine. Here he was, again, often at odds with the Court majority (Baltimore & Ohio Railroad v. Baugh, 1893).

Theories of economics and finance were freely used by both sides in the much‐debated Legal Tender Cases, which involved the constitutionality of the issuance of paper money by the federal government. Field wrote at great length to prove that there was an inalienable right to the use of gold and silver as currency and thus that there was no constitutional power to force Americans to accept paper money as legal tender (Knox v. Lee, 1871). Nevertheless, the five‐justice majority ruled the law to be valid, reversing an earlier decision. Field repeated much the same arguments—but this time as a minority of one—in 1884 in Juilliard v. Greenman.

On the California Supreme Court and later as a U.S. circuit court judge, Field applied the idea of inalienable rights to the Chinese, who were discriminated against by California law. This made him politically unpopular in the Golden State, and it may be because of this that he slowly gave up his “extreme” opinions against anti‐Chinese state or local enactments (Barbier v. Connolly, 1885). His record on the Chinese cases shows a good deal of inconsistency, which he never bothered to explain or even acknowledge.

Despite the Fourteenth Amendment's plain purpose to protect African‐Americans from state discrimination, Field showed no tendency to give effect to its provisions. Indeed, he went so far as to claim, in a dissenting opinion, that the amendment did not even secure for African‐Americans the right to serve on juries (Ex parte Virginia, 1880). In the frequent cases in which the Court majority refused to use the amendment to protect African‐Americans' rights, Field merely went along with the majority, writing no opinions. Where, then, was his doctrine of inalienable rights? The civil rights cases illustrate the major difficulty with such doctrines—that of definition. In Field's case it became obvious that the rights of private property were more inalienable than the right to equal protection under the law. Each judge had to define the word “right” for himself, and the Constitution disappeared in the process.

Field, true to his beliefs, did not retire from politics when he ascended the supreme bench. He served as a Democratic member of the electoral commission that decided the Hayes‐Tilden presidential election in 1876, voting down the line for the Democrat Tilden. When Hayes was declared the victor, Field manifested his disagreement by refusing to accompany the rest of the Court to the inauguration. Urged on by his brothers, the Californian became a more or less open candidate for the presidency in 1880, but, due partly to old and new enmities made in California, he failed badly at the nominating convention. Nevertheless, he remained a storm center in California politics for some years. He also, apparently, expected that President Grover Cleveland would appoint him chief justice when Morrison Waite died in 1888, since he was the only Democrat on the bench and he felt that Cleveland owed him some political debts. Cleveland felt otherwise and appointed an outsider, Melville Fuller; Field never forgave the president. (See Extrajudicial Activities.)

The events leading to the killing, in California, of Judge David S. Terry by Deputy Marshall David Neagle, are too complex to summarize. Neagle shot Terry in an apparent attempt to protect Field's life. In a celebrated case that reached the Supreme Court itself, Neagle's act was upheld as being pursuant to his duty to the United States (In re Neagle, 1890). It was another example of Field's tendency to appear at the center of controversy, whether legal, political, or personal.

Because he was intent on remaining on the Court longer than the thirty‐three‐year record then held by John Marshall, Field refused to step down even when diplomatically asked to do so by Justice Harlan at the insistence of the other justices. Field had done less and less Court work through the 1890s, and by the time of his retirement was practically useless to his colleagues. An element in his decision not to resign earlier was his extreme dislike of both Presidents Cleveland and Harrison: he did not want either of them to appoint his successor. After his retirement in 1897, he became increasingly feeble, turned back to the religion he had largely ignored during most of his life, and died after a brief illness in 1899.

Field was undoubtedly a chief contributor to the development of Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence, especially that of the Due Process Clause. If he turned that provision to uses that were neither intended by the amendment's framers nor required by its words, he was at least in tune with his times and with the felt needs of an industrializing society. Substantive due process was, it is true, dropped by later, more liberal Courts, which did not share Field's attachment to the rights of private property; but these same liberals were to find the doctrine useful in developing noneconomic inalienable rights such as the right to personal privacy used to justify the right to abortion. Field, in his grave, may find a certain ironic satisfaction in the attempts of his critics to define very different inalienable rights by calling on the same natural law approach he used in constitutional interpretation. And who is to say whether Field or William O. Douglas chose rights that are truly inalienable?

Bibliography

• Howard Jay Graham, Justice Field and the Fourteenth Amendment. Yale Law Journal 52 (September 1943): 851–889.
• Robert Green McCloskey, American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise (1951), chap. 4.
• Carl Brent Swisher, Stephen J. Field, Craftsman of the Law (1930).
• G. Edward White, The American Judicial Tradition (1976), chap. 4

— Loren P. Beth

The American jurist Stephen Johnson Field (1816-1899) was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and a powerful partisan of unimpeded business expansion.

Stephen Field was born on Nov. 4, 1816, in Haddam, Conn., the son of a Congregationalist minister. He spent 2 years in Europe and the Middle East before entering Williams College, from which he graduated in 1837. He read law in the firm of his brother David in New York City, then moved to California in 1849.

The contradiction in Field's life between outrageous personal boldness and determination for law and order was a reflection of the frontier. At Yurbaville (later Marysville), Calif., as justice of the peace, Field was noted for his arbitrary but firm enforcement of the law. Despite an undignified controversy with another judge, he was elected in 1857 to the state's supreme court.

Field was a Unionist in the Civil War, and in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Notable among his early court writings were dissents in the Slaughter-House Cases (1873) and Munn v. Illinois (1873). In the latter Field presaged his philosophy of protecting business from the competition of governmentally created monopolies and from governmental regulation. This legal philosophy, referred to as "substantive due process," expressed the idea of putting limits on government in order to preserve liberty, along with the notion that government interference in the jungle of economic competition was unnatural.

Substantive due process came into full force in Field's circuit court opinion, later upheld by the Supreme Court, San Mateo v. Southern Pacific R.R. Co. (1882). Here, a corporation was defined as a "person" and was thus protected by the 14th Amendment from any deprivation of its rights by government intervention "without due process of law." This clause was a firm barrier against regulation, and with its protection, business enjoyed a legal immunity that lasted until the 1930s.

Field was a powerful voice in the Democratic party. He greatly resented being bypassed for the chief justiceship in 1888 by President Grover Cleveland. A gregarious man, he was not above sharing the hospitality of men whose corporations were engaged in litigation before the Supreme Court.

After serving on the Supreme Court longer than any other justice in its history, Field resigned in 1897. He died on April 9, 1899, in Washington, D.C.

Further Reading

Field's Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California (1880; rev. ed. 1893) is illuminating. Carl Brent Swisher, Stephen J. Field: Craftsman of the Law (1930), is the standard biography. Also of value is the essay on Field in Robert G. McCloskey, American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise: A Study ofWilliam Graham Sumner, Stephen J. Field, and Andrew Carnegie (1951).

Additional Sources

The Fields and the law: essays, San Francisco: United States District Court for the Northern District of California Historical Society; New York: Federal Bar Council, 1986.

executive director

Personal Information

Born Evelyn J. Fields on January 29, 1949, in Norfolk, VA.
Education: Norfolk State College, B.S., 1971.

Career

Cartographer, Atlantic Marine Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 1972-73; operations officer, NOAA vessels Mt. Mitchell and Peirce; executive officer, Rainier; Exchange Hydographer with Canada; commander, McArthur, 1989-90; administrative officer, National Geodetic Survery; chief, Hydrographic Surveys; director, Commissioned Personnel Center; deputy assistant administrator, National Ocean Service; director, Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and NOAA Commissioned Corps, 1999-.

Life's Work

When Evelyn J. Fields was named director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in May of 1999, she became the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. As head of the NOAA, an environmental service agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the nation's seventh and smallest uniformed service, Fields oversees a staff of 700--both civilians and commissioned officers--and is responsible for the deployment and operation of 15 research ships and 14 aircraft, all of which gather information about the world's oceans, atmosphere, space, and the sun. The work of the NOAA Commissioned Corps "affects our health and safety," Commerce Secretary William M. Daley said in a speech following Fields's appointment, as reported in The Officer in November of 1999. Among the many important missions in which the NOAA Corps has played a leading role were the recovery of TWA Flight 800, assessments of environmental damage following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and preparation and production of Persian Gulf maps for Operation Desert Storm.

In a press release issued by the NOAA in May of 1999, Commerce Secretary Daley described Fields as an "exceptional, visionary officer," and retiring NOAA Corps director Rear Admiral William L. Stubblefield commended her as an "outstanding officer and forward-looking leader...[who] commands the loyalty and respect of those with whom she works." He added, "I have full confidence that under her leadership and direction, the NOAA Corps will continue to serve the agency's programs and the nation with the highest level of professionalism."

First Black Woman to Join NOAA

The eldest of five children, Evelyn Fields grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. Though it was a coastal city with a strong

military presence, she never considered a naval career."To be

honest, in the early '70s, I was looking for a job, any kind of

job," she said in an interview The Washington Post. "Growing up in...a sea town, I never really thought about going to sea. I never spent more than the normal amount of time going to the beach." After she received her B.S. degree in mathematics from Norfolk State College, friends suggested she explore career possibilities at the Norfolk-based Atlantic Marine Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1972 she accepted a job as a cartographer, and the following year, when the NOAA uniformed service first began recruiting female officers, she was the first African-American woman to join the Corps. She has remained with the NOAA for the last 28 years, and is now the highest ranking officer in the service.

Fields's climb to the top was a steady and deliberate one, encompassing diverse responsibilities both on land and at sea. Early in her career, she served as operations officer on the ships Mt. Mitchell and Peirce and as executive officer on the Rainier, with missions covering the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Alaskan seas. Among the operations she participated in and directed were hydrographic surveys, fisheries research, and oceanographic research. Her expertise in the area of hydrography, or the study of bodies of water, later led to her appointment as the second U.S. Exchange Hydrographer with Canada. Upon completion of the assignment, her job was to review and critique the surveys in order to determine whether the hydrographic data submitted by the field units of the Atlantic Marine Center were both complete and accurate enough to be entered into the processing system.

Fields received one of the greatest honors of her career in January of 1989, when she was named the first female commander of a federal ship. According to an article in Ebony, the 32-person crew of the NOAA's McArthur were tentative at first, but quickly found that things were not much different with a woman in control. "They were standing back a little to see what was going to happen, but after a month, they realized it was business as usual," Fields said. For her, it was a learning experience, to be sure, but an enjoyable one. "I learned a hell of a lot about [engine] systems," she told Ebony. "Men think in terms of only men knowing how engines work, but once the engineers began to explain things to me, I could just see the amazement in their eyes when I was able to ask [intelligent] questions."

Balanced Needs of Scientists and Soldiers

While the other six branches of the U.S. uniformed services concentrate on the defense of the country, the NOAA carries out extensive scientific exploration and conducts detailed atmospheric research. The scientific and environmental data it gathers are then used to serve and protect the lives of all American citizens through five main organizations: the National Weather Service; the National Ocean Service; the National Marine Fisheries Service; the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. In commanding the McArthur, Fields found that one of her biggest and most important jobs was to try to balance the differing needs and perspectives of the forty people on board--some civilian scientists and some military officers. "There are differences of perception when you're dealing with scientists," she told Ebony. "They don't always worry about weather conditions or physical constraints; they just want to do their work...I think of it as a community with different attitudes, perceptions, and various jobs to perform." In the same interview, one of her subordinates, Lieutenent Robert Anderson, described her as "a good leader...one of those rare bosses who have the ability to make people below them work a little bit harder."

In July of 1990, after completing an 18-month stint as

commander of the McArthur, Evelyn Fields was chosen to participate in the U.S. Department of Commerce Science and Technology Fellowship Program. Here, she received hands-on experience in high-level policy making and program management. Her next position was as administrative officer of the National Geodetic Survey, followed by chief of Hydrographic Surveys, and finally, director of the Commissioned Personnel Center. Along the way, she attended the Armed Forces Staff College, and later served as assignment coordinator for the Office of NOAA Corps Operations, a position which allowed her to work with all of the NOAA's program areas and advise both programs and officers on matters of personnel placement.

Fields then served as deputy assistant administrator of the National Ocean Service, the organization's second highest position. According to U.S. Commerce Secretary William M. Daley in a news release issued by the Department in May of 1999, under her watch, the NOAA's nautical charting capabilities took "a quantum leap forward." Among the initiatives Fields helped direct, Daley said, were "the development of roster and vector charts, doubling of chart production, reduction of chart update production time from 47 to just four weeks, improvement in technology with a substantial increase in data acquisition capabilities on board NOAA hydrogrpahic survey ships, and increase in contracting out of survey operations to the private sector."

Received Groundbreaking Appointment

On January 19, 1999, President Bill Clinton nominated Captain Evelyn Fields for the position of director of the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and the NOAA Commissioned Corps. Less than four months later her appointment was confirmed by the Senate, and immediately thereafter she was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral, Upper Half. In addition to overseeing a corps of officers--all of whom are scientists and engineers--and civilians who operate the agency's research ships and survey aircraft, Fields devotes much of her time and energy to building bridges between the NOAA Corps and other agencies, as well as the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) and other research bodies.

Though the NOAA Corps dates back to 1807, when President Thomas

Jefferson signed legislation authorizing a systematic survey of

the nation's coasts, over the last five years the organization has come up against serious cost-cutting measures imposed by the

Clinton administration. In 1995 a hiring freeze reduced the then

400-member corps by nearly half. At the time, wrote Judy

Sarasohn of the Washington Post, the administration's aim was to "disband the service" or to "...establish a new civilian position to 'manage the corps.'" However, three separate studies revealed that only a small cost savings would result from converting to a civilian workforce, and in 1998 Congress voted to maintain a corps of up to 264 officers. "Now, perhaps more than any time in our recent past, the future of the office of NOAA Corps Operations is filled with opportunities for renewal..." Fields said in an interview with The Officer.

Over the years, Evelyn Fields has received a wide variety of awards and commendations both for work with the NOAA and her participation in mentoring programs and minority recruitment initiatives. In addition to her 1996 award as one of the top fifty minority women in science and engineering from the National Technical Association, in 1999 she received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Ralph M. Metcalfe Health, Education and Science Award and was named Woman of the Year by the Maryland Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. In 2000 the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded her its highest honor--a Gold Medal for leadership--and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia passed a Senate Joint Memorial Resolution to honor her contributions to the community of Norfolk. She was also named an honorary member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority at its 80th National Leadership Conference.

Confident and matter-of-fact in her approach, Fields describes her rise through the ranks at the NOAA as a steady and

relatively painless process, with no hint of racial or sexual discrimination. As of the spring of 1999, the corps included nine members of minority groups and 32 women. "They did not make a difference between us and our male counterparts,"she told Ebony in 1990. "I came up through the chain of command and was given the opportunity to prove myself." She reiterated these thoughts nine years later in an interview with the Washington Post. "I haven't spent my career working very hard," she told Sarasohn."I have spent the right time doing the right kinds of jobs and obviously have been in the right kind of assignments to put me in the position to be here. The fact that I'm female is nice; the fact that I'm black is nice, but I don't think those were the reasons I was selected."

Awards

Lady of the Year, Bachelor-Benedict Club of Norfolk, VA, 1994; Top 50 Minority Women in Science and Engineering Award, National Technical Association, 1996; Ralph M. Metcalfe Health, Education, and Science Award, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, 1999; Women of the Year, Maryland Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., 1999; Gold Medal for Leadership, U.S. Department of Commerce, 2000; honored for her contributions to the Norfolk community, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 2000; honorary member, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, 2000.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• Ebony, June 1990, p. 88.
• Jet, August 2, 1999, p.4.
• The Officer, November 1999, p.17.
• The Washington Post, May 24, 1999, p.A23.

• Additional information for this profile was obtained from a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on May 12, 1999 and a biographical sketch proveded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations on October 2, 2000.

— Caroline B.D. Smith

• Born: Nov. 4, 1816, Haddam, Conn.
• Education: Williams College, B.A., 1837; studied law privately
• Previous government service: California House of Representatives, 1850–51; justice, California Supreme Court, 1857–63
• Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln Mar. 6, 1863, to a newly created position on the Court
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Mar. 10, 1863, by a voice vote; retired Dec. 1, 1897
• Died: Apr. 9, 1899, Washington, D.C.

Stephen Field served more than 34 years on the Supreme Court, longer than any other justice except William O. Douglas. During Field's long term, he was a strong supporter of the property rights of individuals.

Justice Field was the Court's leader in using the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to prohibit state governments from regulating or interfering with the property rights of corporations and other businesses or industries. Justice Field viewed a corporation as an individual that could not be deprived of its rights by state governments because of the protection of individual rights guaranteed by Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.

Justice Field and his followers on the Court did not, however, show an equal concern for the rights of people, especially black people, for whose protection the 14th Amendment was drafted and ratified in 1868. They consistently voted as a majority to deny these individual rights to African Americans. Field, for example, voted with the Court's majority in Plessy v. Ferguson to establish the “separate but equal” doctrine. That doctrine remained the legal basis for racial segregation in the United States until it was overturned in 1954 by the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Justice Field argued that the “equal protection of the laws” required by the 14th Amendment required only equal treatment of people, not their freedom of choice.

In the 1890s, Field's ability to work declined as he became disabled by illness and the infirmities of advanced age. His colleagues repeatedly asked him to retire, but Field refused because he wanted to surpass John Marshall's record for length of service on the Court. He finally retired in 1897, but only after barely exceeding Chief Justice Marshall's record of service of 34 years and five months.

Sources

• Carl B. Swisher, Stephen J. Field: Craftsman of the Law (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1930)

Stephen Johnson Field served as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1863 to 1897, making him the second longest serving justice in the history of the Court. Field was a conservative who consistently upheld the interests of business. He became the prime advocate of the theory of "substantive due process," which favored private property rights over attempts by state and federal government to regulate the economy. Conservatives on the Court used substantive due process to strike down regulatory legislation until the 1930s.

Field was born in Haddam, Connecticut, on November 4, 1816. His family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, when he was a young child. At thirteen he was sent to Turkey to live with his sister and her missionary husband. They later moved to Athens, Greece, where Field remained until entering Williams College in 1833. After graduating in 1837 he read the law with his older brother, David Dudley Field, who had emerged as a prominent New York City attorney and legal reformer.

In 1849 Field left New York City for the Gold Rush in northern California. He speculated in land, developed a thriving legal practice involving property and mineral rights, and organized the town of Marysville. He became Marysville's mayor and judge. In 1850 he was elected to the state legislature. He was instrumental in organizing standards of procedure for civil and criminal law and he also drafted mining laws. He ran for the state senate in 1851 but was defeated.

Field was elected to the California Supreme Court in 1857. He became chief justice in 1859 and served until 1863. He concentrated his efforts on cases dealing with titles to land and mineral rights. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, appointed Field to the U.S. Supreme Court. Though Field was a Democrat, he was a loyal Unionist during the Civil War and a well-respected state judge.

Field established his opposition to government interference with business in the Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall) 36, 21 L. Ed. 394 (1873). The case involved a Louisiana state law that allowed one meat company the exclusive right to slaughter livestock in New Orleans. Other packing companies were required to pay a fee for using the slaughterhouses. These companies filed suit, claiming that the law violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Court upheld the Louisiana monopoly law, ruling that the Privileges and Immunities Clause had limited effect as it only reached privileges and immunities guaranteed by U.S. citizenship, not state citizenship. Field wrote a dissent, maintaining that "the privileges and immunities designated are those which of right belong to the citizens of all free governments." He saw the clause as a powerful tool to keep state government out of the affairs of business and the economy.

Field saw an opportunity to use the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause to curtail government interference with business. He first articulated the idea of substantive due process in his dissent in Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113, 24 L. Ed. 77 (1876). The majority upheld the Illinois legislature's right to fix maximum storage rates charged by grain elevators and public warehouses and to require licenses to operate these facilities.

Field contended that the regulations violated due process and that under the U.S. system of government the legislature lacked the power "to fix the price which anyone shall receive for his property of any kind." By 1890 he had convinced the majority of the Court that his view of the Due Process Clause was correct and had extended its reach to the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, using it to invalidate federal legislation that regulated business. Until the 1930s the Court overturned a succession of state and federal laws that attempted to regulate business and labor.

Field voted to strike down a federal income tax in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co., 157 U.S. 429, 15 S. Ct. 673, 39 L. Ed. 759 (1895), seeing the tax as a plot against capitalism. In his concurring opinion, Field warned, "The persistent assault upon capital is but the beginning. It will be a stepping stone to others larger and more sweeping till our political contests will become a war of the poor against the rich, a war constantly growing in intensity and bitterness."

Field entertained political ambitions while on the Court. In 1880 he sought the Democratic party presidential nomination but did poorly at the nominating convention. He became increasingly infirm during the 1890s and did little work. He was determined, however, to break John Marshall's record of thirty-three years on the Court. He achieved that record in 1896 (later to be surpassed by William O. Douglas) and retired in 1897. He died in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1899.

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Stephen Johnson Field
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office May 20, 1863 – December 1, 1897
Nominated by	Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	(none)
Succeeded by	Joseph McKenna
Born	November 4, 1816(1816-11-04) Haddam, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	April 9, 1899 (aged 82) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Spouse(s)	Sue Virginia Field

Stephen Johnson Field (November 4, 1816 – April 9, 1899) was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from May 20, 1863, to December 1, 1897. Prior to this, he was the 5th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career in California politics and law 3 U.S. Supreme Court justice 4 Notes 5 Further reading 6 See also 7 External links

Early life and education

Born in Haddam, Connecticut, he was the sixth of the nine children of David Dudley Field I, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Submit Dickinson. His family produced three other children of major prominence in 19th Century America: David Dudley Field II the prominent attorney, Cyrus Field the millionaire investor and creator of the Atlantic Cable, and Rev. Henry Martyn Field a prominent clergymen and travel writer. He grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and went to Turkey at thirteen with his sister and her missionary husband. He graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1837. While attending Williams College he was one of the original Founders of Delta Upsilon Fraternity. After studying law in New York City with his brother David Dudley Field II, they practiced law together until 1848 when he went west to California in the Gold Rush. ^[1]

Career in California politics and law

There his legal practice boomed and he was elected alcalde, a form of mayor and justice of the peace under the old Mexican rule of law, of Marysville. Because the Gold Rush city could not afford a jail, and it cost too much to transport prisoners to San Francisco, Field implemented the whipping post, believing that without such a brutal implement many in the rough and tumble city would be hanged for minor crimes. The voters sent him to the California State Assembly in 1850 to represent Yuba County, but he lost a race the next year for the State Senate. His successful legal practice led to his election to the California Supreme Court in 1857, serving six years.^[2]

Stephen Johnson Field

U.S. Supreme Court justice

Abraham Lincoln appointed him to the newly created tenth Supreme Court seat, to achieve both regional balance (he was a Westerner) and political balance (he was a Democrat, albeit a Unionist one). It would also give the Court someone familiar with real estate and mining issues.

He was a vocal proponent of the substantive due process theory that protected property rights from regulation under the Fourteenth Amendment--as illustrated in his dissents to the Slaughterhouse Cases and Munn v. Illinois. Field's views were eventually adopted by the court's majority, but only after his death. However, he helped end the income tax (Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company), limit anti-trust law (United States v. E.C. Knight Company), and the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

On the issue of ethnic minorities, he had a mixed record. Field wrote opinions against California's laws discriminating against the Chinese immigrants to that state.^[3] Serving as an individual jurist in district court, he notably struck down the racist Pigtail Ordinance in 1879, making him unpopular with the Californian public. However, Justice Field dissented in Strauder v. West Virginia, a case holding that the exclusion of African-Americans from a jury that convicted Strauder, an African-American, of murder, was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. He also joined the infamous case Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld racial segregation.

Field insisted on breaking John Marshall's record of thirty-three years on the court, even though he was not able to handle the workload. His colleagues asked him to resign due to his being intermittently senile^[4] but he refused, staying on until 1897. He lived only two years more, dying in Washington, D.C., and was buried there in the Rock Creek Cemetery.

Justice Field was assaulted by a former associate of his on the California Supreme Court, David S. Terry, whom Field had recently jailed for contempt during a long-running legal case involving Terry's wife and her former lover and purported first husband, William Sharon. Terry was shot and killed by Field's bodyguard. Ironically, legal issues arising from the shooting came before the Supreme Court in the 1890 habeas corpus case of In re Neagle.^[5]

Justice Field's aspirations to become Chief Justice went unfulfilled, as he had made many enemies both political and personal.^[6] He is the second longest serving Associate Justice.^[7] See, List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office.

Notes

1. ^ Robert Green McCloskey, American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise, 1865-1910 (1951; Harper & Row, 1964), pp. 86-92.
2. ^ McCloskey, American Conservatism, pp. 96-97.
3. ^ McCloskey, American Conservatism, pp. 109-111.
4. ^ Morris, Jeffrey B. (1981). "The Era of Mellville Weston Fuller". Supreme Court Historical Society 1981 Yearbook (Supreme Court Historical Society). http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c03_f.html. 
5. ^ Gorham, George C. (2005). "The Story of the Attempted Assassination of Justice Field by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of California". Journal of the Supreme Court Historical Society 30 (2). doi:10.1111/j.1540-5818.2005.00102.x. 
6. ^ Oyez Project, Official Supreme Court media, Stephen Johnson Field.
7. ^ Stephen Johnson Field at Find a Grave.

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 1568021267. 
• 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 0791013774. 
• Hall, Kermit L., ed (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195058356. 
• Kens, Paul (1997). Justice Stephen Field: Shaping Liberty from the Gold Rush to the Gilded Age. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0817-1. 
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0871875543. 
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0815311761. 

See also

Corporate personhood Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States List of United States Chief Justices by time in office

United States Supreme Court cases during the Chase Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Fuller Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Taney Court United States Supreme Court cases during the Waite Court

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Field, Stephen Johnson.

• Oyez Project, Official Supreme Court media, Stephen Johnson Field.
• Stephen Johnson Field at Find a Grave.
• Stephen Johnson Field at PBS
• Stephen J. Field at Supreme Court Historical Society.
• Works by Stephen Johnson Field at Project Gutenberg

California Assembly
New district	California State Assemblyman, 14th District (Yuba County seat) 1851-1852	Succeeded by A. G. Caldwell
Legal offices
Preceded by David S. Terry	Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court 1859 –1863	Succeeded by Warner W. Cope
New seat	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States May 20, 1863 – December 1, 1897	Succeeded by Joseph McKenna

Supreme Court of the United States

The Taney Court Chief Justice: Roger Brooke Taney (1836–1864) 1863–1864: J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field The Chase Court Chief Justice: Salmon Portland Chase (1864–1873) 1864–1865: J.M. Wayne | J. Catron | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field 1865–1867: J.M. Wayne | S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field 1867–1870: S. Nelson | R.C. Grier | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field 1870–1872: S. Nelson | N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley 1873: N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt The Waite Court Chief Justice: Morrison Remick Waite (1874–1888) 1874–1877: N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt 1877–1880: N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt | J.M. Harlan 1881: N. Clifford | S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt | J.M. Harlan | Wm. B. Woods | S. Matthews 1882–1887: S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | Wm. B. Woods | S. Matthews | H. Gray | S. Blatchford 1888: S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | S. Matthews | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | L.Q.C. Lamar II The Fuller Court Chief Justice: Melville Weston Fuller (1888–1910) 1888–1889: S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | S. Matthews | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | L.Q.C. Lamar II 1890–1891: S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | L.Q.C. Lamar II | D.J. Brewer 1891–1892: S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | J.M. Harlan | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | L.Q.C. Lamar II | D.J. Brewer | H.B. Brown 1892–1893: S.J. Field | J.M. Harlan | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | L.Q.C. Lamar II | D.J. Brewer | H.B. Brown | Geo. Shiras, Jr. 1893: S.J. Field | J.M. Harlan | H. Gray | S. Blatchford | D.J. Brewer | H.B. Brown | Geo. Shiras, Jr. | H.E. Jackson 1894–1895: S.J. Field | J.M. Harlan | H. Gray | D.J. Brewer | H.B. Brown | Geo. Shiras, Jr. | H.E. Jackson | E.D. White 1896–1897: S.J. Field | J.M. Harlan | H. Gray | D.J. Brewer | H.B. Brown | Geo. Shiras, Jr. | E.D. White | R.W. Peckham

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