Willis Van Devanter

(b. Marion, Ind., 17 Apr. 1859; d. Washington, D.C., 8 Feb. 1941; interred Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.), associate justice, 1910–1937. Willis Van Devanter, one of the Four Horsemen, graduated from the University of Cincinnati Law School in 1881. After three years in his father's Marion, Indiana, law firm, he moved to Wyoming, where he quickly became involved in public life: first as city attorney of Cheyenne and as a territorial legislator and then as chief justice of the territorial court. When Wyoming became a state, he returned to private practice, counting the Union Pacific Railroad among his clients. Van Devanter's involvement in Republican party politics led to his appointment as assistant attorney general in the Department of Interior in 1897. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1903, and seven years later President William Howard Taft chose him to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice William Moody.

Van Devanter was considered the foremost intellectual conservative on the court during his twenty‐six‐year tenure. His service was distinguished primarily by his performance in the conference and as a critic of his colleagues' opinions. His knowledge of jurisdictional matters also led Chief Justice Taft to choose him to play a leading role in drafting the Judiciary Act of 1925 and testifying before Congress on its behalf.

Never a prolific writer, Van Denvanter made his legal contributions in obscure areas of the Court's docket: public land claims, water rights issues, Indian controversies, corporate law, jurisdictional issues, and admiralty law. His most important majority opinion was McGrain v. Daugherty (1927), in which he broadly interpreted the implied power of Congress to conduct investigations. Congress, he said, had the power to investigate and to issue subpoenas even without an explicitly stated legislative purpose. Aside from McGrain, Van Devanter is known primarily for the opinions he wrote or joined that subscribed to the principles of limited government. His opinion for the Court in Mondou v. New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad (1912) upheld the Employees' Liability Act of 1908, because it was restricted to the Court's prevailing view that congressional power was limited to interstate commerce itself and to actions that directly affected that commerce. Van Devanter was, however, fiercely opposed to the use of the commerce power, along with the taxing power (see Taxing and Spending Clause) and the Due Process Clause to regulate industry and labor‐management relations. He joined Justice William Day in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), Chief Justice Taft in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922), and Justice George Sutherland in Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) in striking down federal child labor and state minimum wage legislation on commerce, tax, and due process grounds.

The Great Depression provided a clear test of Van Devanter's commitment to limited government principles. Hammer, Bailey, and Adkins suggested his response. Along with three conservative justicaes—James McReynolds, Sutherland, and Pierce Butler—he consistently opposed New Deal economic and social programs. These Four Horsemen, as they became known, joined by Justice Owen Roberts, overturned the Railway Pension Act in Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad (1935), voided the Agricultural Adjustment Act's processing tax in United States v. Butler (1936), and struck down the New York State minimum wage law in Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo (1936) as commerce, tax, and due process clause violations.

These decisions and *Schechter Poultry v. United States (1935), which condemned the National Industrial Recovery Act, precipitated a constitutional crisis. In response to FDR's *“court‐packing” plan, the Court retreated. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Roberts joined Justices LouisBrandeis, Harlan Fiske Stone, and Benjamin Cardozo to uphold federal and state legislation over dissents by the Four Horsemen. In his dissent in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation (1937), Van Devanter, joined by Sutherland and Butler, argued that federal regulation of labor‐management relations violated the Commerce Clause because the effect on interstate commerce was indirect and remote. In Steward Machine Co. v. Davis (1937), Van Devanter agreed with Sutherland that the Social Security Act of 1935 exceeded the congressional taxing power. Sutherland's opinion for all Four Horsemen in *West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937) also expressed Van Devanter's firm conviction that the state minimum wage statute offended the Due Process Clause. In subsequent cases, Van Devanter's fellow conservative justices continued to resist the Roosevelt revolution, but these three decisions and his retirement at the end of the 1936 term resolved the Court's confrontation with the New Deal.

Bibliography

• James O'Brien Howard, Constitutional Doctrines of Mr. Justice Van Devanter (1937)

— William Crawford Green

• Born: Apr. 17, 1859, Marion, Ind.
• Education: Indiana Asbury University (DePauw University), B.A., 1878; University of Cincinnati Law School, LL.B., 1881
• Previous government service: city attorney, Cheyenne, Wyo., 1887–88; Wyoming Territorial Legislature, 1888; chief justice, Wyoming Territory Supreme Court, 1889–90; assistant U.S. attorney general, 1897–1903; judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 1903–1910
• Appointed by President William Howard Taft Dec. 12, 1910; replaced William Moody, who retired
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Dec. 15, 1910, by a voice vote; retired June 2, 1937
• Died: Feb. 8, 1941, Washington, D.C.

Willis Van Devanter moved, as a young man, from his settled community in Indiana to Cheyenne in the Wyoming Territory. On the last western frontier, he built a successful career in law and politics that led him back east to federal government service in Washington, D.C.

Van Devanter served 26 years on the Supreme Court, where he exercised great influence on his colleagues during most of his long term. He rarely wrote opinions; his average number of opinions per year was only 14. (Most justices wrote more than 30 per year.) Justice Van Devanter influenced the other justices through face-to-face discussions about the cases before the Court. He often influenced the direction and substance of opinions written by others.

Justice Van Devanter argued persistently for limited government and against the expansion of the federal government's power to regulate businesses and the relationships between employers and workers. Accordingly, he reacted strongly against the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He succeeded in influencing the Court to strike down several New Deal laws during President Roosevelt's first term of office. However, by 1936 the tide had turned against him. Public opinion was strongly on the side of Roosevelt's New Deal. The President's new appointments to the Court reflected this public mood and Roosevelt's views. As a result, Van Devanter decided to retire from the Court in 1937.

As an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1910 to 1937, Willis Van Devanter was considered the leading conservative justice of the era. Van Devanter's background in education, politics, and the law brought him to the bench, first as chief justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court and then as a U.S. circuit judge. In his twenty-six years on the U.S. Supreme Court, he consistently opposed the expansion of government power. His opposition was fiercest during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he joined three other conservative justices of the Supreme Court in fighting Roosevelt's legislative program, the New Deal. Their like-minded opinions, which earned them the nickname the "Four Horsemen," led to a sharp confrontation with the president.

Born on April 17, 1859, in Marion, Indiana, Van Devanter was the first of eight children born to Violetta Spencer and Isaac Van Devanter, a lawyer and abolitionist. He excelled in academics, graduating in 1878 from Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) with a near perfect record in history, math, Greek, and Latin. In 1881 he earned a bachelor of laws degree from the Cincinnati Law School and established a law practice in Indiana. He soon moved to Wyoming where he represented railroads, helped to amend the state's statutes in 1886, and served as city attorney for two years. In 1888 he was a representative at the territorial legislature and chaired the Judiciary Committee. Van Devanter also found time for hunting grizzly bears with the legendary Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody).

For the next two decades, Van Devanter's energies were divided among the judiciary, education, and Republican party politics. He presided as chief justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court from 1889 to 1890. From 1896 to 1900, he was an assistant U.S. attorney general to the Department of the Interior, concurrently serving as a delegate to the Republican National Committee. He also taught law at Columbian College, now George Washington University. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in 1910 President William Howard Taft nominated him to the Supreme Court.

On the Court, Van Devanter wrote few noteworthy opinions. His contributions came mainly in obscure legal areas that he had mastered while on the circuit court: land claims, water rights, and jurisdictional issues. Rather than writing opinions, Van Devanter preferred to assert his influence in discussions among the justices. He often voiced his belief that government power should be limited. He took an especially narrow view of the powers that could be asserted under the U.S. Constitution's Commerce, Tax, and Due Process Clauses. From 1918 to 1923, he joined majority opinions that found federal child labor laws and state minimum wage legislation unconstitutional.

Ironically, Van Devanter's most significant opinion marked a rare departure from his ideology. In McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 U.S. 135, 47 S. Ct. 319, 71 L. Ed. 580 (1927), he asserted that Congress had broad powers to subpoena and conduct investigations. The opinion's impact was felt dramatically two decades later during congressional investigations of labor corruption and Communism.

In the 1930s Van Devanter's desire to restrain government kept him on the Court. He had apparently decided to retire in 1932 but changed his mind because of what he regarded as the excesses of President Franklin Roosevelt. The president had embarked on the ambitious New Deal, a broad legislative response to the economic hardships of the Great Depression.

Sharing Van Devanter's opposition to these programs were three other conservative justices: James C. McReynolds, George Sutherland, and Pierce Butler. Critics dubbed them the "Four Horsemen," after the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. In a string of decisions, they voted as a bloc to strike down key New Deal laws. Among these decisions was Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495, 55 S. Ct. 837, 79 L. Ed. 1570 (1935), which voided a key part of Roosevelt's plan for economic recovery and provoked the president into seeking a means to ensure that his legislation survived. Two years later, Roosevelt responded with an extraordinary attempt to expand the number of justices on the Court—his so-called court-packing plan. In the face of this challenge, the Court backed down and began upholding New Deal legislation.

Van Devanter resigned at the end of 1936. Although branded a reactionary during his tenure, in retirement he received accolades from his fellow justices, conservative and liberal alike. He died on February 8, 1941, in Washington, D.C.

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Willis Van Devanter
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office December 16, 1910 – June 2, 1937
Nominated by	William Howard Taft
Preceded by	Edward Douglass White
Succeeded by	Hugo Black
Born	April 17, 1859(1859-04-17) Marion, Indiana
Died	February 8, 1941 (aged 81) Washington, D.C.
Spouse(s)	Delice Burhans

Willis Van Devanter (April 17, 1859 - February 8, 1941) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, January 3, 1911 to June 2, 1937.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Federal judicial service 2.1 Supreme Court tenure 3 Retirement and final years 4 References 5 Further reading

Early life and career

Born in Marion, Indiana, he received a LL.B. from the Cincinnati Law School in 1881. After three years private practice in Marion, he moved to the Wyoming Territory where he served as city attorney of Cheyenne, Wyoming, a member of the territorial legislature, as chief judge of the territorial court. Upon statehood, he again took up private practice including much work for the Union Pacific and other railroads. From 1896 to 1900 he served in Washington, D.C. as an assistant attorney general, working in the Department of Interior. He was also a professor at the Columbian University School of Law (now The George Washington University Law School) from 1897 to 1903.

Federal judicial service

On February 4, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Van Devanter to a seat on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals created by 32 Stat. 791. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 18, 1903, and received his commission the same day. In 1910, William Howard Taft elevated him to the Supreme Court. Taft nominated Van Devanter on December 12, 1910 to the Associate Justice seat vacated by Edward D. White. Van Devanter was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 15, 1910, and received his commission the following day. Van Devanter assumed senior status on June 2, 1937, one of the first Supreme Court Justices to do so. Although no longer on the Court at that point, he technically remained available to hear cases until his death.

Supreme Court tenure

On the court, he made his mark in opinions on public lands, Indian questions, water rights, admiralty, jurisdiction, and corporate law, but is best remembered for his opinions defending limited government in the 1920s and 1930s. He served for over twenty-five years,^[1] and voted against the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (United States v. Butler), the National Recovery Administration (Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States), federal regulation of labor relations (National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp.), the Railway Pension Act (Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad), unemployment insurance (Steward Machine Co. v. Davis), and the minimum wage (West Coast Hotel v. Parrish). For his conservatism, he was known as one of the Four Horsemen, along with Pierce Butler, James Clark McReynolds, and George Sutherland; the four would dominate the Supreme Court for over two decades.^[1]

Van Devanter had chronic writer's block and, as a result, he wrote fewer opinions than any of his brethren, averaging three a term during his last decade on the Court.^[2] However, he was widely respected as an expert on judicial procedure. He was largely responsible for the 1925 legislation that allowed the Supreme Court greater control over its own docket through the certiorari procedure.

Retirement and final years

Van Devanter retired as a Supreme Court Justice on May 18, 1937,^[1] after Congress voted full pay for justices over seventy who retired.^{[citation needed]} There has, however, been considerable speculation that Van Devanter actually resigned due to fall-out from Roosevelt's "court-packing" attempt; cf. Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937.^{[citation needed]} Van Devanter was replaced by Justice Hugo Black, appointed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.^[3]

He died in Washington, DC, and was buried there in Rock Creek Cemetery.

Van Devanter's personal and judicial papers are archived at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, where they are available for research.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Ball, Howard. Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior. Oxford University Press. 2006. ISBN 0-19-507814-4. Page 89.
2. ^ Ball, Howard (1996). Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 89. ISBN 0-19-507814-4. OCLC 32511064. 
3. ^ Ball, Howard. Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior. Oxford University Press. 2006. ISBN 0-19-507814-4. Page 93.

• Willis Van Devanter at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Further reading

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed.. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 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 ISBN 1568021267; ISBN 9781568021263.. 
• Frank, John P.; Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors (1995). The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN ISBN 0791013774, ISBN 978-0791013779. 
• Hall, Kermit L., ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN ISBN 0195058356; ISBN 9780195058352.. 
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN ISBN 0871875543. 
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN ISBN 0815311761; ISBN 978-0815311768.. 

Legal offices
Preceded by New seat	Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit 1903-1910	Succeeded by Walter Inglewood Smith
Preceded by Edward Douglass White	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States January 3, 1911 – June 2, 1937	Succeeded by Hugo Black

Supreme Court of the United States

The White Court Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White (1910–1921) 1911: J. M. Harlan | J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | Wm. R. Day | H.H. Lurton | C.E. Hughes | W. Van Devanter | J.R. Lamar 1912–1914: J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | Wm. R. Day | H.H. Lurton | C.E. Hughes | W. Van Devanter | J.R. Lamar | M. Pitney 1914–1916: J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | Wm. R. Day | C.E. Hughes | W. Van Devanter | J.R. Lamar | M. Pitney | J.C. McReynolds 1916–1921: J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | Wm. R. Day | W. Van Devanter | M. Pitney | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | J. H. Clarke The Taft Court Chief Justice: William Howard Taft (1921–1930) 1921–1922: J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | Wm. R. Day | W. Van Devanter | M. Pitney | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | J.H. Clarke 1922: J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | Wm. R. Day | W. Van Devanter | M. Pitney | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | Geo. Sutherland 1923–1925: J. McKenna | O.W. Holmes | W. Van Devanter | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | Geo. Sutherland | P. Butler | E.T. Sanford 1925–1930: O.W. Holmes | W. Van Devanter | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | Geo. Sutherland | P. Butler | E.T. Sanford | H.F. Stone The Hughes Court Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (1930–1941) Feb–Mar 1930: O.W. Holmes | W. Van Devanter | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | Geo. Sutherland | P. Butler | E.T. Sanford | H.F. Stone Jun 1930–1932: O.W. Holmes | W. Van Devanter | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | Geo. Sutherland | P. Butler | H.F. Stone | O.J. Roberts 1932–1937: W. Van Devanter | J.C. McReynolds | L.D. Brandeis | Geo. Sutherland | P. Butler | H.F. Stone | O.J. Roberts | B.N. Cardozo

Persondata
NAME	Van Devanter, Willis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	United States federal judge
DATE OF BIRTH	April 17, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH	Marion, Indiana
DATE OF DEATH	February 8, 1941
PLACE OF DEATH	Washington, District of Columbia

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