Willis Van Devanter

US Supreme Court justice from 1911 to 1937

In this Dutch name , the surname is Van Devanter, not Devanter.

Willis Van Devanter (April 17, 1859 – February 8, 1941) was an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1911 to 1937. He was a staunch conservative and was regarded as a part of the Four Horsemen , the conservative bloc that dominated the Supreme Court during much of the 1930s.

Early life

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Van Devanter was born in Marion, Indiana , to a family of Dutch Americans . He attended Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University ) from 1875 to 1878 before earning a Bachelor of Laws from the Cincinnati Law School in 1881. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and the Knights of Pythias .

Legal, political and state judicial careers

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In 1884, Van Devanter moved to the Wyoming Territory where he became the city attorney of Cheyenne . He served on a commission to revise the statutes of Wyoming Territory in 1886, and as a member of the territorial legislature in 1888. He also served as an attorney to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association during the 1889–93 Johnson County War , managing to strain the local courts' (and county's) budget and delay trials while his clients and their allies worked to make key witnesses and the gunman unavailable, as well as securing favorable press coverage from the state's most influential papers while threatening to sue the Johnson County paper for slander.

He served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Wyoming from 1889 to 1890, then resumed his private law practice. The Union Pacific and other railroads were among his major clients.

In 1896, Van Devanter represented the state of Wyoming before the U.S. Supreme Court in _Ward v. Race Horse _ 163 U.S. 504 (1896). This involved a state poaching charge for hunting out of season, and its purported conflict with an Indian treaty that allowed the activity. The Native Americans won in the U.S. Federal District Court ; the judgment was reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court by a 7–1 majority.

From 1897 to 1903, Van Devanter served in Washington, D.C. , as an assistant attorney general, working in the Department of Interior . He was also a professor at George Washington University Law School from 1897 to 1903.

Federal judicial service

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Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals

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Van Devanter in 1903

On February 4, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Van Devanter to a newly created seat on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals . He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 18, 1903, and received his commission the same day.

United States Supreme Court

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On December 12, 1910, President William Howard Taft nominated Van Devanter as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court , to a seat vacated by Edward D. White . He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 15, 1910, He was sworn into office on January 3, 1911.

Van Devanter's former DC residence at 2108 Wyoming Avenue NW

On the court, he made his mark in opinions on public lands , Indian questions, water rights , admiralty , jurisdiction , and corporate law , but is best remembered for his opinions defending limited government in the 1920s and 1930s. He served for over twenty-five years, and voted against the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (_United States v. Butler ), the National Recovery Administration (Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States ), federal regulation of labor relations (National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. ), the Railway Pension Act (Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad _), [unemployment insurance](h

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