Horace Gray

US Supreme Court justice from 1882 to 1902

For the English cricketer, educator and clergyman, see Horace Gray (cricketer) .

"Justice Gray" redirects here. For other uses, see Justice Gray (disambiguation) .

Horace Gray (March 24, 1828 – September 15, 1902) was an American jurist who served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court , and then on the United States Supreme Court , where he frequently interpreted the Constitution in ways that increased the powers of Congress . He was a staunch supporter of the authority of precedent throughout his career, and would write landmark opinions in cases such as _Elk v. Wilkins _ and _United States v. Wong Kim Ark _.

Early life

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Gray was born in Boston, Massachusetts , the son of Horace and Harriet (née Upham) Gray, and grandson of merchant and politician William Gray .

He enrolled at Harvard College at the age of 13, and graduated four years later. After traveling in Europe for a time, Gray entered Harvard Law School, from which he graduated with an LL.B. in 1849. Gray was admitted to the bar in 1851, and practiced law in Boston for 13 years.

Judicial career

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Massachusetts state courts

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In 1854, he was named Reporter of Decisions for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court . While serving in this capacity, Gray edited sixteen volumes of court records, and also served as a counselor to the governor of Massachusetts on legal and constitutional questions. The quality of Gray's work earned him a reputation for historical scholarship and legal research.

Gray was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as an associate justice in 1864. At age 36, he was the youngest appointee in the Court's history. Nine years later he was elevated to chief justice . While serving as chief justice, Gray hired Louis D. Brandeis as a clerk , becoming the first justice of that court to hire a law clerk.

United States Supreme Court

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In December 1881, President Chester A. Arthur nominated Gray to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court created by the death of Nathan Clifford . The United States Senate quickly confirmed his appointment, and on January 9, 1882, he officially joined the Court.

As he had been in Massachusetts, Gray was also the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to hire a law clerk. He used his own funds to pay the clerk's salary, as no government money was appropriated for this purpose at the time. Additionally, he was one of the few Supreme Court appointees in the latter half of the 19th century who had not previously been a politician, and he maintained the opinion that law and politics were entirely separate fields.

Two years after joining the Court, he wrote the majority opinion in _Juilliard v. Greenman _ (1884), the last of the post–Civil War _Legal Tender Cases _, which reaffirmed that Congress did have the power to issue paper money as legal tender . The 8–1 decision rested largely on prior court cases as well as an assessment of what the Framers of the Constitution intended to achieve (i.e. their original intent ) through their grant of certain "Enumerated powers " to Congress in Article I, Section 8.

The most enduring of his written opinions is the one he authored in _Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York v. Hillmon _ (1892), which held that a declarant's out-of-court statement of his intention to do something or go somewhere in the future is admissible under the "state-of-mind" hearsay exception. "The letters in question were competent, not as narratives of facts communicated to [Walters] by others, nor yet as proof that he actually went away from Wichita, but as evidence that, shortly before the time when other evidence tended to show that he went away, he had the intention of going, and of going with Hillmon, which made it more probable both that he did go and that he went with Hillmon, than if there had been no proof of such intention." This holding was subsequently codified in Rule 803(3) of the _Federal Rules of Evidence _, as well as the evidence laws in most states.

Gray was also the author of the 1898 case _United States v. Wong Kim Ark _, ruling that "a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China, becomes at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States.".

He joined the majority in _Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. _ (1895), a 5–4 ruling that the unapportioned income taxes on interest , dividends and rents imposed by the [Income Tax Act of 1894](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson%E2%80%93Gorman_Tariff_Act

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