National University - Docket Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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Fuller was the first man to be commissioned “Chief Justice of the United States.” All his seven predecessors had been commissioned “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.” Since Fuller’s ap- pointment the commissions have carried the shorter title. The official title of the head of the Court has varied widely in the different laws dealing with the Court. Even as late as 1926 Congress passed an act providing a salary of $20,500 for “the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.” On one occasion Chief Justice Taft reminded an attorney practic- ing before the Court that “the Chief Justice of the United States,” not “the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States” is the correct title of the head of that institution. When Chief Justice F uller died in 1910 President Taft, a Northerner, a Republican and a Unitarian, did a handsome act by appointing to the Chief Justiceship Edward Douglass White, a Southerner, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic. Nonpartisan though the Court is supposed to be, it has been the only case in which a President has appointed to that office a man of a different political affiliation. White, who was born in Louisiana in 1845, a century after the birth of Chief Justices Jay and Rutledge, was the son and grandson of a member of Congress. Fie served as a private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, being the fourth man with military experience to become Chief Justice. Jay was a colonel in the New York militia, though he never saw any very active service; Rutledge was active commander of the militia of South Carolina for two years in the Revolution when he was president of his State; and Marshall saw considerable active service as a commissioned officer in the same conflict. After serving in the United States Senate, White was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by Presi- dent Cleveland in 1894, and he has been the only man elevated directly from an Associate Justiceship to the Chief Justiceship. Rutledge and Hughes [ 28 ]

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had previous service as Associate Justices before their elevation to the highest seat, but both had resigned and left the Court. Upon White’s death in 1921 William Howard Taft, who had ap- pointed White, was himself appointed as White’s successor by President Harding, and he has been the only man thus far to occupy both the high posts of President and Chief Justice. Whereas Waite was born in Con- necticut and removed to Ohio, Taft was born in Ohio and removed to Con- necticut. Chief Justice Taft died in 1930 and President Hoover appointed to succeed him Charles Evans Hughes, who, like Jay, is a native of New ork, and who has successively held the offices of Governor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of State, and Chief Justice. r so 1