Wiley Blount Rutledge
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| Wiley Blount Rutledge | |
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| In office February 15, 1943 – September 10, 1949 |
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| Nominated by | Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
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| Preceded by | James F. Byrnes |
| Succeeded by | Sherman Minton |
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| Born | July 20, 1894 Cloverport, Kentucky |
| Died | September 10, 1949 (aged 55) York, Maine |
| Spouse | Annabel Person |
Wiley Blount Rutledge, Jr. (July 20, 1894 - September 10, 1949) was a U.S. educator and jurist.
Rutledge was born in Cloverport, Kentucky (more specifically, at nearby Tar Springs) to Wiley Blount Rutledge, Sr., a Southern Baptist minister, and Mary Lou Wigginton Rutledge (d. 1903). Another son died in infancy, and then his sister Margaret was born in 1897. His family moved about while he was young, but he attended college at Maryville College and then the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating from there in 1914. Rutledge taught high school in Indiana while attending the Indiana University law school part-time. He later moved to Colorado, and received a degree from the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder. While matriculating at Colorado, Rutledge joined the Pi Chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.
On August 28, 1917, Rutledge married Annabel Person. The couple had three children: Mary Lou (1922), Jean Ann (1925), and Neal (1927).
Rutledge worked in private practice in Boulder for a few years before deciding to instead pursue an academic career. He taught at a number of law schools before being named Dean of the University of Iowa College of Law in 1935. From this position, Rutledge was a vocal supporter of Franklin Roosevelt's plan to pack the Supreme Court. Rutledge also served as Dean of Washington University School of Law from 1930-1935, where the Wiley Rutledge Moot Court competition is named in his honor.[1]
Roosevelt appointed Rutledge to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1939, and Rutledge quickly demonstrated strong liberal tendencies, particularly in his interpretation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Roosevelt nominated Rutledge to the United States Supreme Court in 1943, where Rutledge continued his liberal leanings. Among other things, he wrote for the court “[O]ur Government is not one of mere convenience or efficiency. It too has a stake, with every citizen, in his being afforded our historic individual protections, including those surrounding criminal trials. About them we dare not become careless or complacent when that fashion has become rampant over the earth.” Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 773, 66 S. Ct. 1239, 90 L. Ed. 1557 (1946).
He served on the court until his death. On August 27, 1949, Rutledge was vacationing in Maine. He had a stroke while driving his car and died two weeks later, aged fifty-five. One of Rutledge's law clerks, John Paul Stevens, would himself become a Supreme Court justice, in 1975.
[edit] References
- Data drawn in part from the Supreme Court Historical Society and Oyez.
John Ferren, Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court: The Story of Justice Wiley Rutledge (2004) is an acclaimed full-length biography of Justice Rutledge by an author who is himself a senior federal judge.
Justice Rutledge's papers are archived at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and available to researchers.
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by New seat |
Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1939-1943 |
Succeeded by Bennett Champ Clark |
| Preceded by James F. Byrnes |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States February 15, 1943 – September 10, 1949 |
Succeeded by Sherman Minton |
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