Harding Appoints Taft
With all of the focus on the Supreme Court this week, it is fitting that today is the 91st anniversary of the day (June 30, 1921) that President Warren Harding nominated former President William Howard Taft to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The senate approved the nomination on the same day.
Taft had once remarked, "there is nothing I would have loved more than being chief justice of the United States" and when Harding nominated Taft, the nomination to oversee the highest court in the land was like a dream come true. There was little opposition to the nomination, and the Senate approved him 60-4 in a secret session on the same day. The roll call of the vote has never been made public so it is not known who the four senators opposed to Taft's nomination were.
Taft received his commission immediately and readily took up the position, taking the oath of office on July 11, and serving until 1930. As such, he became the only President to serve as Chief Justice, and thus the only former President to swear in subsequent Presidents. He administered the oath of office to both Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929).
Taft enjoyed his years on the court and many historians report that Taft was respected by his peers. Justice Felix Frankfurter once remarked to Justice Louis Brandeis that it was "difficult for me to understand why a man who is so good a Chief Justice could have been so bad as President. Taft remains the only person to have led both the Executive and Judicial branches of the United States government. He considered his time as Chief Justice to be the highest point of his career; allegedly, he once remarked "I do not remember that I was ever President".
Taft was the push behind the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1925, which shifted the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction to be largely discretionary upon review of litigants' petitioning to be granted an appeal. This allowed the Supreme Court to give preference to what they believed to be cases of national importance, permitting the Court to work more efficiently.
Taft was the first Justice to employ two full-time law clerks to assist him. In 1929, he successfully argued in favor of the construction of the first separate and spacious United States Supreme Court building (the one that is still in use now). He argued that the Supreme Court needed to distance itself from the Congress as a separate branch of the Federal Government. Until then, the Court had heard cases in Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol Building. The Justices had no private chambers there, and their conferences were held in a room in the Capitol's basement. The building was completed in 1935, five years after Taft's death.
Taft retired as Chief Justice on February 3, 1930 because of ill health. Charles Evans Hughes, whom he had appointed to the Court while president, succeeded him. Five weeks following his retirement, Taft died on March 8, 1930.
Taft had once remarked, "there is nothing I would have loved more than being chief justice of the United States" and when Harding nominated Taft, the nomination to oversee the highest court in the land was like a dream come true. There was little opposition to the nomination, and the Senate approved him 60-4 in a secret session on the same day. The roll call of the vote has never been made public so it is not known who the four senators opposed to Taft's nomination were.
Taft received his commission immediately and readily took up the position, taking the oath of office on July 11, and serving until 1930. As such, he became the only President to serve as Chief Justice, and thus the only former President to swear in subsequent Presidents. He administered the oath of office to both Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929).
Taft enjoyed his years on the court and many historians report that Taft was respected by his peers. Justice Felix Frankfurter once remarked to Justice Louis Brandeis that it was "difficult for me to understand why a man who is so good a Chief Justice could have been so bad as President. Taft remains the only person to have led both the Executive and Judicial branches of the United States government. He considered his time as Chief Justice to be the highest point of his career; allegedly, he once remarked "I do not remember that I was ever President".
Taft was the push behind the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1925, which shifted the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction to be largely discretionary upon review of litigants' petitioning to be granted an appeal. This allowed the Supreme Court to give preference to what they believed to be cases of national importance, permitting the Court to work more efficiently.
Taft was the first Justice to employ two full-time law clerks to assist him. In 1929, he successfully argued in favor of the construction of the first separate and spacious United States Supreme Court building (the one that is still in use now). He argued that the Supreme Court needed to distance itself from the Congress as a separate branch of the Federal Government. Until then, the Court had heard cases in Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol Building. The Justices had no private chambers there, and their conferences were held in a room in the Capitol's basement. The building was completed in 1935, five years after Taft's death.
Taft retired as Chief Justice on February 3, 1930 because of ill health. Charles Evans Hughes, whom he had appointed to the Court while president, succeeded him. Five weeks following his retirement, Taft died on March 8, 1930.