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2009

Charles Evans Hughes

Richard D. Friedman University of Michigan Law School, [email protected]

Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/book_chapters/63

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Publication Information & Recommended Citation Friedman, Richard D. "Charles Evans Hughes." In Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, edited by R. K. Newman, 278-9. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 2009.

This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Book Chapters by an authorized administrator of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 278 Hufstedler, Shirley M.

committee investigating New York City's gas and electric utilities. Hughes's patient yet relentless inves­ tigative style, together with a remarkable ability to di­ gest huge amounts of information quickly, helped him uncover substantial overcharges by the utility compa­ nies. Soon after, he was asked to be counsel to another legislative inquiry; though it was known as the Arm­ strong Insurance Investigation, after the name of the committee chairman, Hughes was the dominant fig­ ure. Exposing various forms of malfeasance within the life insurance industry, he drew national attention. During the course of the inquiry, the Republican party tried to draft him to run for mayor of New York City, but he declined because the candidacy would be incompatible with his responsibilities to the in­ vestigation. Soon after completing this work-which culminated in the passage of an extensive set of legis­ lation-Hughes accepted another draft, this one to be Hughes, Charles Evans Republican candidate for governor of New York in (I862-I948). Lawyer, poli­ I906, and won the election. tician, diplomat, and chief As governor, Hughes demonstrated remarkable justice of the United States. independence, which often brought him into conflict Hughes was born in Glens with his party's leadership. On some matters, he had a Falls, N.Y., the son of a Bap­ nearly judicial governing style-he actually held evi­ tist preacher from the En­ dentiary hearings to determine whether officials glish-Welsh border country should be removed-but he was also effective appeal­ who changed congregations ing on policy matters directly to the people. In his first from time to time. Young year in office, he secured passage of a law creating a pi­ Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes spent his earliest oneering Public Service Commission; it was during Hughes years in several locations in his campaign for this law that he made the famous New York and New Jersey before the family settled in pronouncement, "We live under a Constitution, but Brooklyn. A precocious child, he was educated both at the Constitution is what the judges say it is." In 1908, home and in public school. At age I4, he began college he was again successful in supporting a law that, in at Madison (now Colgate) University, a Baptist insti­ accordance with the state constitution, effectively tution. After his sophomore year, he transferred to prohibited racetrack gambling. He also handily won Brown, which also had a Baptist tradition. Its more reelection that year. In I909 and I9IO, he fought un­ rigorous standards required that he spend an extra successfully for a system of nominating candidates for year in college, but he graduated at age I 9 in r 88 I. Af­ public office by direct primaries. ter a year of teaching at the Delaware Academy in As the largely successful governor of the nation's Delhi, N.Y., he enrolled in Columbia Law School, largest state, whose ideology and methods fit well with graduating in I884. the Progressive Era, Hughes was a national figure and Hughes began practice in the New York City law a presidential prospect. But President William How­ firm of WalterS. Carter, who later became his father­ ard Taft appointed him to the Supreme Court, and he in-law as well as his partner. Vulnerable throughout resigned the governorship in October I9IO, near the much of his life to bouts of depression and nervous end of his term. By then, ChiefJustice Melville Fuller exhaustion, Hughes left practice in I89I to teach at had died, and Taft came very close to nominating Cornell Law School. Two years later, Carter lured him Hughes for the center seat. back. For a dozen more years, though he achieved On the Court, Hughes continued to act on the pro­ considerable respect among lawyers, Hughes labored gressive idea that government and law could be agen­ in near-total obscurity. But then a rapid-fire series of cies for social betterment and order, and that they events made him one of the most famous Americans must be able to supersede private forces. Thus, he of his day. wrote significant opinions reflecting an expansive In I 90S, he was asked to be counsel to a legislative sense of the powers of state and federal governments. Hughes, Charles Evans 279

He looked askance at the doctrine of freedom of con­ tion of the Constitution's contracts clause. In Nebbia tract, and he wrote two landmarks in the early history v. New York (I934), he provided a crucial fifth vote for of civil rights litigation. Roberts's opinion, which discarded the idea that price In June I9I6, he resigned from the Court to accept regulation was constitutionally permissible only in a a draft by both the Republican and Progressive parties closed set of industries determined to be "affected as their presidential nominee. Hughes failed to pro­ with a public interest." And in the I935 Gold Clause vide a compelling reason to oust Woodrow Wilson, Cases, Hughes wrote for the majority, declining to im­ who had achieved considerable domestic success in pose sanctions for congressional abrogation of gold his first term and was able to claim that he had kept the clauses in public and private contracts. nation out of war. But the race was close; a switch of Later the same year, though, Hughes wrote for a fewer than 2,ooo votes in California would have sent unanimous Court invalidating the National Industrial Hughes to the White House. Recovery Act in Schechter Poultry Corporation v. Instead, he returned to the New York bar, this time United States. In I936, he wrote a cryptic separate as one of its clear leaders. President Warren Harding opinion saying briefly that the Bituminous Coal Con­ appointed him secretary of state in I92I. Though he servation Act of I935 went beyond any proper exercise had favored ratification of the Treaty ofVersailles with of Congress's power to regulate commerce. He also mild reservations, Hughes quickly decided that its re­ dissented bitterly, reflecting his long-held views, from submission to the Senate would be futile. Eventually, the Court's decision invalidating a minimum wage law. he negotiated a separate peace treaty with Germany. Several weeks after Franklin D. Roosevelt intro­ Hughes's crowning achievement as secretary, how­ duced his plan to pack the Court in February I937, ever, was the Washington Naval Disarmament Con­ Hughes made known his view that the plan would be ference of I92I-22, which he called for, hosted, and counterproductive with respect to its purported pur­ dominated. Following closely a plan he dramatically pose of making the Court more efficient. His state­ laid out at the opening of the conference, the great ment received widespread publicity but ultimately naval powers agreed to drastic limitations in the ton­ had little impact on the debate, which centered on the nage of their warships. ideology of the Court's decisions. Of much greater Back at the bar in I925, with his stature even fur­ significance that year, with the support of Roberts, ther enhanced, Hughes became one of the leading Hughes was able to write a majority opinion uphold­ Supreme Court advocates of the day. He also served a ing a minimum-wage law, and in National Labor Rela­ term as a member of the Permanent Court oflnterna­ tions Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation he tional Justice. His nomination as chief justice in I 930 wrote a magisterial opinion upholding the National was opposed by many progressive senators who fo­ Labor Relations Act under the commerce power. He cused more on Hughes's recent corporate clientele also joined decisions upholding the Social Security than on his extensive record as a progressive politician Act under the taxing and spending power. and judge. Ultimately, he was confirmed by a vote of Together, these decisions helped undermine sup­ 52-26. His appointment along with that of Owen]. port for Court-packing, but they do not appear to repre­ Roberts later that year moved the Court substantially sent an expedient change of view on Hughes's part. to the left. The shift became apparent almost immedi­ Over the remaining four years of his tenure, his views, ately, including perhaps Hughes's greatest contribu­ some deemed liberal and some conservative, remained tion to the First Amendment, Near v. Minnesota consistent. So did the Jovian aura that Hughes, with his (I93I), prohibiting prior restraints except under the trimmed white beard, created in presiding over the most stringent circumstances. Court. In I 94I, still capable but afraid of continuing un­ Governmental responses to the Great Depression, der a delusion of adequacy, he retired, thus ending one however, placed the Court under intense pressure. of the most astonishing careers in American history. Four justices were generally inclined not to accept novel exercises of government power, and three jus­ RICHARD D. FRIEDMAN tices usually were receptive, while Hughes and Rob­ David J. Danelski and Joseph S. Tulchin, eds., The Autobio­ erts tended to be in the middle. In I934-35, the Court graphical Notes of Charles Evans Hughes (1973); Betty Glad, issued three major decisions, all by identical 5-4 Charles Evans Hughes and the Illusions ofInnocence: A Study in votes. In Home Building and Loan Association v. Blais­ American Diplomacy (1966); Samuel Hendel, Charles Evans Hughes and the Supreme Court (1951); Merlo J. Pusey, Charles dell (I934), Hughes wrote the majority opinion, up­ Evans Hughes, 2 vols. (1951); Robert F. Wesser, Charles Evans holding an emergency mortgage moratorium law and Hughes: Politics and Reform in New York, I90S-I9IO (1966). explicitly introducing flexibility into the interpreta-