Editing Pierce Butler (judge)

{{Short description|US Supreme Court justice from 1923 to 1939}}
{{redirect|Justice Butler}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Pierce Butler
| image               = Pierce Butler.jpg
| office              = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
| nominator           = [[Warren G. Harding]]
| term_start          = January 2, 1923 <!--Term start date as per www.supremecourt.gov, reflects date oath taken-->
| term_end            = November 16, 1939<ref name=SCOTUSjustices>{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| title= Justices 1789 to Present| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref>
| predecessor         = [[William R. Day]]
| successor           = [[Frank Murphy]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1866|3|17}}
| birth_place         = {{nowrap|[[Dakota County, Minnesota]], U.S.}}
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1939|11|16|1866|3|17}}
| death_place         = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Annie Cronin|1891}}
| children            = 8
| education           = [[Carleton College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Bachelor of Science|BS]])
| caption             = Butler {{circa}} 1922
| resting_place       = [[Calvary Cemetery (St. Paul, Minnesota)|Calvary Cemetery]]
| signature           = Pierce Butler signature.svg
}}
'''Pierce Butler''' (March 17, 1866 – November 16, 1939) was an American [[jurist]] who served as an [[associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1923 until his death in 1939. He is notable for being the first Supreme Court justice from Minnesota, and for being a Democrat appointed by a Republican president. He was a staunch [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] and was regarded as a part of the [[Four Horsemen (Supreme Court)|Four Horsemen]], the conservative bloc that dominated the Supreme Court during the 1930s. A devout Catholic, he was also the sole dissenter in the later case ''[[Buck v. Bell]]'', though he did not write an opinion.

==Early life and education==
Butler was born in [[Northfield, Minnesota]], to Patrick and Mary Ann Butler.<ref name="SCHS" /> Born in a log cabin, he was the sixth of nine children. All but his sister lived to adulthood.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} His parents were [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] immigrants from [[County Wicklow]], [[Ireland]], who had met in [[Galena, Illinois]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 29, 2022 |title=Pierce Butler: An Inventory of His Family Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society |url=http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00007.pdf |access-date=2023-02-02 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society}}</ref> They had left the same part of Ireland because of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]].

Butler graduated from [[Carleton College]] in 1887. He received both a degree in the arts and a degree in science. He then [[Reading law|read the law]] for one year before being admitted to the [[Bar association|bar]] in 1888.<ref name="SCHS" /> He married Annie M. Cronin in 1891.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Onofrio |first=Jan |title=Minnesota Biographical Dictionary: People of All Times and Places Who Have Been Important to the History and Life of the State |publisher=Scholarly Pr |year=1994 |isbn=978-0403099450 |page=48}}</ref>

==Legal career==
[[File:Pierce Butler (1866–1939) in Progressive Men of Minnesota, 1897.png|thumb|left|175px|Butler in 1897]]

He was elected as county attorney in [[Ramsey County, Minnesota|Ramsey County]] in 1892, and re-elected in 1894.<ref name="SCHS">{{cite web |url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/pierce-butler-1923-1939/ |title=Pierce Butler |publisher=[[Supreme Court Historical Society]] |access-date=July 24, 2012 |archive-date=September 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915095518/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/pierce-butler-1923-1939/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  Butler joined the law firm of How & Eller in 1896, which became How & Butler after the death of Homer C. Eller the following year. He accepted an offer to practice in [[St. Paul, Minnesota]], where he took care of railroad-related litigation for [[James J. Hill]]. He was highly successful in representing railroads.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite journal |title=Pierce Butler |journal=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2012 |access-date=July 24, 2012 |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/86539/Pierce-Butler |archive-date=November 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123094444/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/86539/Pierce-Butler |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1905 he returned to private practice and rejoined Jared How.  He had also served as a lawyer for the company owned by his five brothers.  In 1908, Butler was elected [[List of Minnesota State Bar Association Presidents|President]] of the [[Minnesota State Bar Association]].

From 1912 to 1922, he worked in railroad law in [[Canada]], alternately representing the shareholders of railroad companies and the Canadian government; he produced favorable results for both.  When he was nominated for the [[United States Supreme Court]] in 1922, Butler was in the process of winning approximately $12,000,000 for the [[Toronto Street Railway]] shareholders.

==Supreme Court justice==

===Nomination and confirmation===
[[File:Justice Pierce Butler at desk cropped.png|thumb|left|upright|Justice Butler circa 1924]]
On December 5, 1922, Butler was nominated by President [[Warren G. Harding]] as an [[Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|associate justice]] of the Supreme Court, to succeed [[William R. Day]].<ref name=SCnominations>{{cite web| title=Supreme Court Nominations (1789–Present)| url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm| publisher=United States Senate| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> Although he was supported by [[Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court|Chief Justice]] [[William Howard Taft]], Butler's opposition to "radical" and "disloyal" professors at the [[University of Minnesota]] (where he had served on the Board of Regents) made him a controversial Supreme Court nominee. [[Farmer–Labor Party|Farmer–Labor]] Senator-elect [[Henrik Shipstead]] of Minnesota opposed him, as did the [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]] Senator [[Robert M. La Follette]] of [[Wisconsin]].<ref name="Britannica"/> Also against his confirmation were labor activists, some [[Liberalism in the United States|liberal]] magazines (''[[The New Republic]]'' and ''[[The Nation]]'') and the [[Ku Klux Klan]] because he was [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]]. His appointment was supported by prominent Roman Catholics, fellow lawyers (the Minnesota State Bar Association strongly endorsed him), and business groups (especially railroad companies), as well as Minnesota's incumbent senators, [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] [[Knute Nelson]] and lame duck [[Frank B. Kellogg]]. Butler was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] on December 21, 1922, by a 61–8 vote,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/67-4/s685 |title=Confomation of Pierce Butler as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. (P.813-1). |date=1922-12-21 |website=govtrack.us}}</ref> and took the judicial oath of office on January 2, 1923.<ref name=SCOTUSjustices/>

===Court service===
[[Image:Pierce Butler of the United States Supreme Court.jpg|Portrait of Justice Butler|thumb|left]]

As an associate justice, Butler vigorously opposed regulation of business and the implementation of welfare programs by the federal government (as unconstitutional). During the [[Great Depression]], he ruled against the constitutionality of many "[[New Deal]]" laws – the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] and the [[National Recovery Administration]] – which had been supported by his fellow Democrat [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].<ref name="Britannica"/> This earned him a place among the so-called "[[Four Horsemen (Supreme Court)|Four Horsemen]]," which also included [[James Clark McReynolds]], [[George Sutherland]], and [[Willis Van Devanter]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Ariens">{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/butler.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021016010949/http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/butler.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 16, 2002 |first1=Michael |last1=Ariens |author-link=Michael Ariens |title=Pierce Butler |publisher=Michael Ariens |access-date=July 24, 2012 }}</ref> During his sixteen years on the bench, Justice Butler authored 327 majority opinions as well as 50 minority opinions.

He wrote the majority opinion (6–3) in ''[[United States v. Schwimmer]],'' in which the [[Hungary|Hungarian]] immigrant's application for citizenship was denied because of her candid refusal to take an oath to "take up arms" for her adopted country.

In ''[[Palko v. Connecticut]]'', Butler was the lone dissenter; the rest of the justices believed that a [[Connecticut|state]] was not restrained from [[double jeopardy|trying a man a second time for the same crime]].  Butler believed this violated the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]].{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

He sided with the majority in ''[[Pierce v. Society of Sisters]]'', holding unconstitutional an Oregon state law that prohibited parents from sending their children to private or religious schools.<ref name="Ariens"/>
[[File:Pierce Butler, half-length portrait, standing with his son, Kevin, facing left) - photo by Bain News Service, New York LCCN92505101.tif|left|thumb|Pierce Butler with his son, Kevin in 1927]]
In the 1927 decision for ''[[Buck v. Bell]],'' Butler was the only Justice who dissented from the 8–1 ruling<ref>[[Stephen Jay Gould]], "Does the Stonless Plum Instruct the Thinking Reed," in ''Dinosaur in a Haystack'' (1995) p. 287.</ref> and Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]]'s opinion holding that the forced sterilization of an allegedly "feeble-minded" woman in [[Virginia]] was constitutional.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite journal |url=http://www.stjohns.edu/media/3/3528210f8dba49ee9fd325e9db9e987f.pdf |journal=[[Catholic Lawyer]] |first1=Phillip |last1=Thompson |title=Silent Protest: A Catholic Justice Dissents in Buck v. Bell |pages=125–148 |volume=43 |number=1 |date=February 20, 2005 |access-date=July 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113015710/http://www.stjohns.edu/media/3/3528210f8dba49ee9fd325e9db9e987f.pdf |archive-date=January 13, 2013 }}</ref>  Holmes believed that Butler's religion influenced his thinking in ''Buck'', remarking that "Butler knows this is good law, I wonder whether he will have the courage to vote with us in spite of his religion."<ref>{{cite book |first1=William E. |last1=Leuchtenburg |author-link=William Leuchtenburg |chapter=Mr. Justice Holmes and Three Generations of Imbeciles |title=The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtrebo0000leuc |chapter-url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/supremecourtrebo0000leuc/page/15 15] |isbn=978-0195086133}}</ref> Although Butler dissented in both ''Buck'' and ''Palko'', he did not write a dissenting opinion in either case;<ref name="fernandez">{{cite journal |url=http://www.secure.pdcnet.org/peacejustice/content/peacejustice_2002_0012_0001_0115_0134?file_type=pdf |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415144144/http://www.secure.pdcnet.org/peacejustice/content/peacejustice_2002_0012_0001_0115_0134?file_type=pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-04-15 |first1=Ashley K. |last1=Fernandes |title=The Power of Dissent: Pierce Butler and Buck v. Bell |journal=[[Journal for Peace and Justice Studies]] |volume=12 |number=1 |year=2002 |pages=115–134 |doi = 10.5840/peacejustice200212113|url-access=subscription }}</ref> the practice of a Justice's noting a dissent without opinion was much more common then than it would be in the later 20th and early 21st centuries.

Another consequential dissent was from the opinion expressed in ''[[Olmstead v. United States]]'', which upheld federal [[wiretapping]].<ref name="Ariens"/> He took an expansive view of [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|4th Amendment]] protections.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/pierce_butler/ |title=Pierce Butler |publisher=[[Oyez.org]] |access-date=July 24, 2012 |archive-date=August 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824085013/http://www.oyez.org/justices/pierce_butler |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
On November 15, 1939, Butler went into a [[Washington, D.C.]], hospital for "a minor ailment" but died in the early morning hours of November 16, at the age of 73 while still on the Court. He was the last serving Supreme Court Justice appointed by President Harding. He is buried in [[Calvary Cemetery (St. Paul, Minnesota)|Calvary Cemetery]] in St. Paul.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |title=Christensen, George A. (1983) ''Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices'', Yearbook |access-date=2005-09-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |archive-date=September 3, 2005 }}. [[Supreme Court Historical Society]] at [[Internet Archive]].</ref><ref>Christensen, George A., ''Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited'', ''Journal of Supreme Court History'', Volume 33 Issue 1, pp. 17–41 (Feb 19, 2008), [[University of Alabama]].</ref>

The bulk of his and his family's collected papers are with the [[Minnesota Historical Society]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00007.pdf |title=Pierce Butler papers |first1=Kathryn A. |last1=Johnson |date=July 1991 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |access-date=July 24, 2012 |archive-date=June 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621140207/http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00007.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="FJC">{{cite web |url=http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetMan?jid=335 |publisher=Federal Judicial Center |title=Pierce Butler, Research collections |access-date=July 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120925084910/http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetMan?jid=335 |archive-date=September 25, 2012 }}</ref> Other papers are collected elsewhere.<ref name="FJC"/>

Pierce Butler Route in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]], is named in honor of Butler's son, Pierce Butler Jr..<ref>{{cite book |last1=Empson |first1=Donald L. |title=The Street Where You Live A Guide to the Place Names of St. Paul |date=2006 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-4729-3 |pages=215–216}}</ref><!-- Both versions of Empson's book state it is named after Pierce Butler Jr. Removed the citation to historical blog post by Jane McClure. -->

{{Gallery
|title=Burial of Pierce Butler
|width=180
|height=190
|align=center
|File:Funeral of Justice Pierce Butler.jpg|Funeral of Justice Pierce Butler, members of the Supreme Court, standing on the right, from left to right, retired Justice [[Willis Van Devanter]], Justices [[Felix Frankfurter]], [[Hugo Black]], [[Harlan Stone]]; Chief Justice [[Charles Evans Hughes]] and Thomas E. Waggaman, [[Marshal of the United States Supreme Court]], following high [[requiem mass]] at [[Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle (Washington, D.C.)|St. Matthew's Cathedral]]. Standing on the left, from left to right, Justices [[Owen J. Roberts]], [[Stanley Forman Reed]], [[William O. Douglas]], and retired Justice [[George Sutherland]].
|File:Obelisk Marking Family Plot Of Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler.png|The Butler family plot in St. Paul, Minnesota is marked by a large stone [[obelisk]] bearing only the name "BUTLER"; Pierce's stone and gravesite are in the foreground, obscured by tall grass.
|File:Gravesite of Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler.png|Gravesite of Pierce Butler.
}}

==See also==
* [[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10)]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Hughes Court]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Taft Court]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite web |url=http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=335&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na |publisher=[[Federal Judicial Center]] |title=Pierce Butler}}
* {{cite book |title=A Supreme Court Justice is Appointed |first1=David J. |last1=Danelski |place=New York |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=1964 |page=242}}
* {{cite journal |ssrn=1259314 |first1=David R. |last1=Stras |author-link=David Stras|title=Pierce Butler: A Supreme Technician |journal=[[Vanderbilt Law Review]] |volume=62 |date=August 26, 2008 |type=pdf (full paper downloadable) }}
* {{cite journal |url=http://www.secure.pdcnet.org/peacejustice/content/peacejustice_2002_0012_0001_0115_0134?file_type=pdf |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415144144/http://www.secure.pdcnet.org/peacejustice/content/peacejustice_2002_0012_0001_0115_0134?file_type=pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-04-15 |first1=Ashley K. |last1=Fernandes |title=The Power of Dissent: Pierce Butler and Buck v. Bell |journal=[[Journal for Peace and Justice Studies]] |volume=12 |number=1 |year=2002 |pages=115–134 |doi = 10.5840/peacejustice200212113|url-access=subscription }}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|2}}
* {{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |author-link=Henry J. Abraham |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-506557-2 }}
* {{cite book |title=Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Clinton |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |author-link=Henry J. Abraham |year=1999 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham |edition=Revised |isbn=978-0-8476-9604-8 }}
* {{cite book |last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=([[Supreme Court Historical Society]], [[Congressional Quarterly|Congressional Quarterly Books]]) |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-56802-126-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=[[Chelsea House Publishers]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-7910-1377-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-505835-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
* {{cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-0-87187-554-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
* {{cite book |last1=Schroeder |first1=David |title=More Than a Fraction: The Life and Work of Justice Pierce Butler |publisher=[[Marquette University]] |format=pdf |year=2009 |work=Dissertations (1962–2010) |pages=1–258 |url=http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI3357971/ |access-date=August 14, 2012 |archive-date=September 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915041541/http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI3357971/ |url-status=live }} [http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl%3furl_ver=Z39.88-2004%26res_dat=xri:pqdiss%26rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation%26rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3357971 Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. Paper AAI3357971.]{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Schroeder |first1=David |title=Joining the Court: Pierce Butler |journal=Journal of Supreme Court History |volume=35 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-5818.2010.01238.x |number=2 |date=July 13, 2010 |pages=144–165|s2cid=145405982 }}
* {{cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=[[Garland Publishing]] |year=1994 |location=New York |pages=590 |isbn=978-0-8153-1176-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
{{commons category|Pierce Butler (judge)}}
* {{FJC Bio|335|nid=1378641|name=Pierce Butler<!--(1866–1939)-->}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William R. Day|William Day]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]|years=1923–1939}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Frank Murphy]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{SCOTUS Justices}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Pierce}}
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American judges]]
[[Category:American people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Carleton College alumni]]
[[Category:Minnesota Democrats]]
[[Category:Minnesota lawyers]]
[[Category:People from Dakota County, Minnesota]]
[[Category:United States federal judges appointed by Warren G. Harding]]
[[Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
[[Category:United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]
[[Category:Catholics from Minnesota]]