Stanley Forman Reed

US Supreme Court justice from 1938 to 1957

"Stanley F. Reed" redirects here; not to be confused with Stanley Foster Reed .

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

Stanley Forman Reed (December 31, 1884 – April 2, 1980) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1938 to 1957.

He also served as U.S. Solicitor General from 1935 to 1938.

Born in Mason County, Kentucky , Reed established a legal practice in Maysville, Kentucky , and won election to the Kentucky House of Representatives . He attended law school but did not graduate, making him the latest-serving Supreme Court Justice who did not graduate from law school. After serving in the United States Army during World War I , Reed emerged as a prominent corporate attorney and took positions with the Federal Farm Board and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation . He took office as Solicitor General in 1935, and defended the constitutionality of several New Deal policies.

After the retirement of Associate Justice George Sutherland , President Franklin D. Roosevelt successfully nominated Reed to the Supreme Court. Reed served until his retirement in 1957, and was succeeded by Charles Evans Whittaker . Reed wrote the majority opinion in cases such as Smith v. Allwright , Gorin v. United States , and _Adamson v. California _. He authored dissenting opinions in cases such as Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education .

Early life and education

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Reed was born in the small town of Minerva in Mason County, Kentucky on December 31, 1884, the son of wealthy physician John Reed and Frances (Forman) Reed. The Reeds and Formans traced their history to the earliest colonial period in America, and these family heritages were impressed upon young Stanley at an early age.

At the age of 10, Reed moved with his family to Maysville, Kentucky where his father practiced medicine. The family resided downtown in a prominent home known as Phillips' Folly .

Reed attended Kentucky Wesleyan College and received a B.A. degree in 1902. He then attended Yale College as an undergraduate, and obtained a second B.A. in 1906. He studied law at the University of Virginia (where he was a member of St. Elmo Hall ) and Columbia University , but did not obtain a law degree.

Reed married the former Winifred Elgin in May 1908. The couple had two sons, John A. and Stanley Jr., who both became attorneys.

In 1909 he traveled to France and studied at the Sorbonne as an auditeur bénévole.

Career

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After his studies in France, Reed returned to Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in 1910 and practiced in Maysville for nine years. He was elected as a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1911 and reelected in 1913. He was defeated for a third term in 1915 by Republican candidate Harry P. Purnell. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Reed joined the United States Army and was commissioned a lieutenant in the intelligence division.

When the war ended in 1918, Reed returned to his private law practice and became a well-known corporate attorney. He represented the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Kentucky Burley Tobacco Growers Association, among other large corporations.

Stanley Reed was very active in the Sons of the American Revolution and Society of Colonial Wars , while his wife was a national officer in the Daughters of the American Revolution . The Reeds settled on a farm near Maysville , where Stanley Reed raised prize-winning Holstein cattle in his spare time.

After the war, Reed practiced as a partner in the Maysville firm of Worthington, Browning and Reed.

Federal Farm Bureau

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Reed's work for a number of large agricultural interests in Kentucky made him a nationally known authority on the law of agricultural cooperatives . It was this reputation which brought him to the attention of federal officials.

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