Stone, Harlan Fiske

Stone, Harlan Fiske
born Oct. 11, 1872, Chesterfield, N.H., U.S.
died April 22, 1946, Washington, D.C.

U.S. jurist.

He studied at Columbia Law School and later practiced law while serving as dean (1910–23). Pres. Calvin Coolidge appointed him U.S. attorney general in 1924; during his tenure he reorganized the Federal Bureau of Investigation after its reputation had been tarnished by the Teapot Dome and other scandals. In 1925 Coolidge appointed him to the Supreme Court of the United States, and in 1941 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted him to chief justice, a position he retained until his death. He wrote more than 600 opinions, many on important constitutional questions. He was often less successful, however, in building a consensus among his associate justices, with the result that the court during his chief justiceship was often a bitterly divided body.

Harlan Fiske Stone, 1929.

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

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▪ chief justice of United States Supreme Court

born Oct. 11, 1872, Chesterfield, N.H., U.S.
died April 22, 1946, Washington, D.C.
 associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1925–41) and 12th chief justice of the United States (1941–46). Sometimes considered a liberal and occasionally espousing libertarian ideas, he believed primarily in judicial self-restraint: the efforts of government to meet changing 20th-century social and political conditions should be restricted only on the basis of unconstitutionality rather than undesirability.

      Stone graduated from Amherst College in 1894 and received his law degree in 1898 from the law school of Columbia University. He then taught at Columbia from 1899 and served as the dean of its law school from 1910, while also conducting a private law practice in New York City. President Calvin Coolidge appointed him attorney general of the United States (1924), in which post he reorganized the Federal Bureau of Investigation after its reputation had been tarnished by the Teapot Dome and other scandals of President Warren G. Harding's administration. Stone's effectiveness prompted Coolidge to appoint him an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1925), and President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted him to chief justice in succession to Charles Evans Hughes (1941).

      In his early years on the court, Stone was bracketed with Justices Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes (and later with Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, who replaced Holmes in 1932) as one of the “three great dissenters” against a conservative majority that disliked legislative regulation of business. During Roosevelt's presidency (1933–45), Stone generally affirmed the legislative reforms of the New Deal, upholding, for instance, the Social Security Act of 1935 and the enactment of a national minimum-wage law in 1938. In a leading case involving federal New Deal legislation, United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936), he opposed the court majority's invalidation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act.

      Besides advocating a new tolerance for state regulation of economic activity, Stone was instrumental in asserting the court's concern for protecting individual civil liberties from governmental coercion. He was the lone dissenter when, in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940), the court upheld a state ruling that children who were Jehovah's Witnesses must join in saluting the American flag in public schools. This decision was overruled (1943) while Stone was chief justice. In Girouard v. United States, 328 U.S. 61, 76 (1946), the court followed Stone's dissent in a similar case, United States v. Macintosh, 283 U.S. 605 (1931), in which he had argued that religious pacifists who refused to take the statutory oath to bear arms could nonetheless be naturalized as citizens.

      Stone was renowned for the judicial impartiality and objectivity that he displayed in his more than 600 opinions, many of them on important constitutional questions. He was often less successful, however, in building a consensus among his associate justices, with the result that the Supreme Court during his chief justiceship was often a bitterly divided body.

Additional Reading
Alpheus Thomas Mason, Harlan Fiske Stone: Pillar of the Law (1956, reissued 1968), is a biography. Samuel J. Konefsky, Chief Justice Stone and the Supreme Court (1945, reprinted 1971), is a scholarly assessment of his contribution to Supreme Court judgment methodology.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Stone,Harlan Fiske — Stone, Harlan Fiske. 1872 1946. American jurist who served as an associate justice (1925 1941) and the chief justice (1941 1946) of the U.S. Supreme Court. * * * …   Universalium

  • Stone, Harlan Fiske — (1872 1946)    Born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, and a graduate of Amherst College in 1894 and Columbia University Law School in 1898, Harlan Fiske Stone became the eleventh chief justice of the Supreme Court. After beginning his own private… …   Historical Dictionary of the Roosevelt–Truman Era

  • Stone, Harlan Fiske — (11 oct. 1872, Chesterfield, N.H., EE.UU.–22 abr. 1946, Washington, D.C.). Jurista estadounidense. Estudió en la escuela de derecho de la Universidad de Columbia y más tarde ejerció la profesión mientras se desempeñaba como decano (1910–23). El… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Harlan Fiske Stone — Harlan Stone (um 1930) Harlan Fiske Stone (* 11. Oktober 1872 in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire; † 22. April 1946 in Washington D.C.) war ein US amerikanischer …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Harlan Fiske Stone — noun United States jurist who served on the United States Supreme Court as chief justice (1872 1946) • Syn: ↑Stone • Instance Hypernyms: ↑jurist, ↑legal expert …   Useful english dictionary

  • Harlan F. Stone — 12th Chief Justice of the United States In office July 3, 1941 – April 22, 1946 …   Wikipedia

  • Harlan F. Stone — Harlan Stone (um 1930) Harlan Fiske Stone (* 11. Oktober 1872 in Chesterfield, New Hampshire; † 22. April 1946 in Washington (D.C.)) war ein US amerikanischer Jurist, Politiker, Justizmin …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Stone — Stone, Nicholas * * * (as used in expressions) Stone, Edward Durell Stone, Harlan Fiske Stone, Lucy Stone, Oliver Stone, Robert (Anthony) …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Stone — /stohn/, n. 1. Edward Durell /doo rel , dyoo /, 1902 78, U.S. architect. 2. Harlan Fiske /hahr leuhn/, 1872 1946, U.S. jurist: Chief Justice of the U.S. 1941 46. 3. Irving, born 1903, U.S. author. 4. I(sidor) F(einstein) /fuyn stuyn/, born 1907,… …   Universalium

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