Taft

Chief Justice William Taft

10th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Biography:

Born: September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio
Died: March 8, 1930 in Washington D.C.
Education: 1878 Yale College B.A.
                  1880 University of Cincinnati College of Law
Employment: 1881-1883Assistant prosecuting attorney in Hamilton County, Ohio
                      1882 Collector of internal revenue for the City of Cincinnati, Ohio
                      1883-1887 private practice in Cincinnati, Ohio
                      1885-1887 Assistant CountySolicitor in Hamilton County, Ohio
                      1887-1890 appointed Judge to the Superior Court of Ohio
                      1890-1892 Solicitor General of the United States
                      1891-1900 appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit
                      1896-1900 Professor and Dean for the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio
                      1900-1901 president of the United States Philippine Commission
                      1901-1904 elected Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands
                      1904-1908 United States Secretary of War
                      1909-1913 elected President of the United States
                      1913-1921 Kent professor of law at Yale University
                      1921-1930 appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Harding
                      1930 resigned from office (died one month later)

Taft Court:

What do you do with an ex-president of the United States? You appoint him to the United States Supreme Court bench as the Chief Justice. Or at least that is what President Harding did to Taft after he left office.

�There is nothing I would have loved more than being chief justice of the United States,� President Taft told his Attorney General as he signed Chief Justice White�s commission. �I cannot help seeing the irony in the fact that I, who desired that office so much , should now be signing the commission of another man.�

President Taft finally got his dream commission and became Chief Justice. He was part of the Conservative Court Era that was started by Chief Justice Fuller, this Court helped increase the protection of the Bill of Rights to individuals to the state after World War I. (Epstein, 2001) His era also had to do with the �fabulous twenties�, he came in after the creation of the prohibition amendment and left before that amendment was repealed. He was apart of a well organized Court. Taft�s Court was a very efficient court. Taft knew that he was in the position to adjust the judicial court the way that he wanted it and he did. (Choper, 1987)
Chief Justice Taft�s main focus was on organized labor. In 1921, with his first cases he was able to begin his fight with Truax v. Corrigan. Taft�s Court struck down an Arizona law that allowed �barring courts from issuing injunctions in most cases growing out of the labor dispute.� (Schwartz, 1993) Taft along with Hughes was also apart of the Child Labor Tax Case, which barred children from working. This case was then the beginning of Adkins v. Children�s Hospital, which will be heard more about in Hughes, this case helped establish minimum wage.
Taft wanted this position and once gotten he took his duties and responsibilities very seriously. He was the first person ever to be both the president of the United States and a Chief Justice in the United States Supreme Court. Taft made a lot of improvements in the Supreme Court and in the lives of Americans. People at first were apprehensive of children not working because that would be one less income for poor families but as time progressed we don�t see it as a bad thing. (Choper, 1987)

Major Cases: Adkins v. Children's Hospital 1923
(Epstein, 2001)

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