Mahlon pitney biography of abraham

US Supreme Court justice from to

Mahlon Pitney
In office March 18, &#;– December 31, [1]
Nominated by	William Taft
Preceded by	John Marshall Harlan
Succeeded by	Edward Terry Sanford
In office March 4, &#;– January 10,
Preceded by	Johnston Cornish
Succeeded by	Joshua Salmon
Born	()February 5, Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	December 9, () (aged&#;66) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place	Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Florence Shelton &#; (m.&#;)&#;
Children	3, including Beatrice Pitney Lamb
Education	Princeton University (BA)
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Mahlon R.

Pitney IV (February 5, – December 9, ) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served in the U.S. Residence of Representatives for two terms from to He later served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from to

Early life and education

Pitney was born on February 5, , in Morristown, New Jersey.^[2] The American Pitney family dates back to when two Scots—Johnathan and James Pitney—settled the Pitney farm in Mendham Township, Modern Jersey.

James's son, Mahlon Pitney, fought in the American Revolutionary War alongside George Washington.

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Mahlon Pitney IV was born in Morristown, the son of Sarah Louise (née Halsted) and Henry Cooper Pitney. He attended the College of Fresh Jersey (now Princeton University) where he was a classmate of Woodrow Wilson and served as manager of the campus baseball team.

Upon graduation in , he read law^[3] at his father's practice. Pitney passed the bar exam in and put up a private practice in Dover, working for a second in partnership with his brother, John Oliver Halstead Pitney.

He returned to Morristown in to assume control of his father's law firm, after Henry Pitney was appointed to a judgeship.

Mahlon Pitney (February 5, 1858 — December 9, 1924), American ...: Mahlon R. Pitney IV (February 5, – December 9, ) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms from to He later served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from to

Pitney married Florence Shelton in The couple had three children, and both of their sons attended Princeton University and later entered into the field of law. Pitney was the great-grandfather of actor Christopher Reeve on Reeve's mother's side, as well as his step great-grandfather on his father's side.

Christopher Reeve's maternal grandmother was Beatrice Pitney, and his paternal grandmother married Mahlon Pitney IV.^[4]

Political career

Congress

In , Pitney ran for the United States House of Representatives.

He defeated one-term incumbent Johnston Cornish for the seat from New Jersey's 4th congressional district, and was reelected to a second term two years later. Pitney served as chairman of the state Republican convention and pushed for the nomination of John W.

Griggs as party gubernatorial candidate. A rising luminary in state politics, Pitney aspired to be elected as governor.

State office

In order to further improve his local standing, he resigned from the House prior to the end of his second term and ran for election to the New Jersey Senate; Pitney was victorious in this race.

In the legislature, he took on the role of party floor leader and, after the election, swayed body control to the Republicans. Later, Pitney became Senate President.

Judicial career

Despite Pitney's desire to grow the state's chief executive, Governor Foster M.

Voorhees supported a different candidate as his successor. In Voorhees offered Pitney a seat on the New Jersey Supreme Court, which rid Voorhees of a political rival while maintaining party unity. Seven years later, Pitney was elevated to the role of Chancellor of New Jersey, a unique judicial position under the state's constitution.

Supreme Court of the Merged States

Pitney was nominated by President William Howard Taft on February 19, , to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,^[5] to succeed John Marshall Harlan.

He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 13, , by a 50–26 vote,^[5] and was sworn into office on March 18, ^[1] Although confirmed by a wide margin, the nomination was opposed by progressives.

This hostility was particularly due to Pitney's decision while serving as chancellor in Jones Glass Co. v. Glass Bottle Blowers Association, which limited the ability of unions to prohibit their employers from using strikebreakers.

During his time on the court, Pitney developed a relatively conservative reputation and was an adherent of the judicial philosophy of substantive due process.

Justice Mahlon Pitney joined the U. Pitney was born on February 5, in Morristown, New Jersey. He practiced law for about a decade before pursuing general office. Pitney was elected to the U.

This belief was exemplified in his majority belief in Coppage v. Kansas, where, in ruling unconstitutional a Kansas statute banning anti-union yellow-dog contracts, the court stated that police power could not be legitimately used to ensure equality of bargaining power.

Although distrustful of unions, Pitney also feared the rampant expansion of business and supported a broader use of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Justice Pitney authored the majority notion in New York Central Railroad Co. v. White, in which the Court upheld a Modern York state workman's compensation commandment and laid the foundation for the expansion of these programs nationwide.

He also wrote the controversial majority opinion in Frank v. Mangum, which upheld the wrongful murder conviction of Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman, in Atlanta, Georgia, over the dissents of Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Evans Hughes.

Mahlon Pitney was the last of President william howard taft's appointments to the Supreme Court. Organized labor and some progressives vigorously protested the nomination because of Pitney's antilabor opinions as a New Jersey state judge, but his views paralleled Taft's. During Pitney's decade on the bench —he made prophets of his critics, as his opinions reflected a consistent hostility to the claims of organized labor. The opinion largely followed doctrine laid down in lochner v.

Pitney resigned from the court in after suffering a stroke. Alongside Willis Van Devanter, Pitney was one of only two Supreme Court Justices nominated by President Taft who also later served with Taft during Taft's main person justiceship.

Death and legacy

Pitney died in in Washington, D.C., and was interred at Evergreen Cemetery, in Morristown, New Jersey.^[6]

When asked which twentieth-century Supreme Court justice "has done the most to protect the core Constitutional values," Richard Epstein cited Justice Pitney, calling him "a great justice" and "the only consistent near-libertarian on the Supreme Court."^[7] His daughter Beatrice Pitney Lamb was a writer on political topics,^[8][9] and the grandmother of thespian Christopher Reeve.^[10]

References

External links