Horace Harmon Lurton
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| Horace Harmon Lurton | |
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| In office January 3, 1910 – July 12, 1914 |
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| Nominated by | William Howard Taft |
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| Preceded by | Rufus Wheeler Peckham |
| Succeeded by | James Clark McReynolds |
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| Born | February 26, 1844 Newport, Kentucky |
| Died | July 12, 1914 (aged 70) Atlantic City, New Jersey |
Horace Harmon Lurton (February 26, 1844 – July 12, 1914) was an American jurist who served for four years as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed at the age of 65, Lurton was the oldest justice appointed to the Court.
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[edit] Life
Lurton was born in Newport, Kentucky, the son of a physician turned clergyman. He was a sergeant major in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, serving in the 5th Tennessee Infantry, 2nd Kentucky Infantry, and 3rd Kentucky Cavalry. He was twice captured by Union forces, the second time sent as a prisoner of war to Johnson's Island Prison Camp in Sandusky Bay, Ohio. He there contracted tuberculosis. He was later paroled by President Lincoln because of the pleas for mercy from his mother.
[edit] Education and early practice
After the war, he attended Douglas University, and then earned an LL.B. in 1867 at Cumberland School of Law which was then part of Cumberland University, but is now part of Samford University. At Cumberland he was a member of Beta Theta Pi. Lurton then practiced law in Clarksville, Tennessee.
[edit] Career as a judge
In 1875, Lurton left private practice after being chosen as a judge of the Tennessee Chancery Court for the Sixth Chancery Division. After three years, Lurton then returned to his practice until 1886, when he was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. From this position, in 1893, Lurton was appointed by President Grover Cleveland to a federal appellate judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. While still on that court, Lurton served as dean of the Vanderbilt University law department from 1905 until 1909.
[edit] Supreme Court service
In 1909, Lurton's friend, President William Howard Taft, named him to a seat on the Supreme Court that had been vacated by the death of Justice Rufus Wheeler Peckham. This was the first of Taft's six Supreme Court appointments, and surprised some observers because unlike Taft, Lurton was a Democrat.
Lurton took his seat on the Court at the beginning of 1910. His tenure on the Court was brief, as he served only four years before dying in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1914.
[edit] Notes
- Lurton was a family friend of noted historian and jurist Samuel Cole Williams.
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| Preceded by Howell Edmunds Jackson |
Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit 1893-1909 |
Succeeded by Loyal Edwin Knappen |
| Preceded by Rufus Wheeler Peckham |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States January 3, 1910 – July 12, 1914 |
Succeeded by James Clark McReynolds |
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[edit] References
- Federal Judicial Center bio of Lurton
- Irons, Peter. A People's History of the Supreme Court, p. 260. Penguin Books, 2000. Peter Irons wrote critically of Lurton's lack of impact on American Constitutional Law, even though Lurton only served on the High Court for four years before his death.
