George A. Sutherland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office October 2, 1922 – January 17, 1938[1] | |
| Nominated by | Warren G. Harding |
| Preceded by | John Hessin Clarke |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Forman Reed |
| United States Senator fromUtah | |
| In office March 4, 1905 – March 3, 1917 | |
| Preceded by | Thomas Kearns |
| Succeeded by | William King |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromUtah'sat-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1901 – March 3, 1903 | |
| Preceded by | William King |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Howell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Alexander Sutherland (1862-03-25)March 25, 1862 Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | July 18, 1942(1942-07-18) (aged 80) |
| Political party | Liberal (1883–1896) Republican (1896–1942) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Brigham Young University (BA) University of Michigan |
| Signature |  |
George Alexander Sutherland (March 25, 1862 – July 18, 1942) was a British-born American jurist and politician. He served as anassociate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court between 1922 and 1938. As a member of theRepublican Party, he also representedUtah in both houses ofCongress.
Born inBuckinghamshire, England, Sutherland and his family moved to theUtah Territory in the 1860s. After attending theUniversity of Michigan Law School, Sutherland established a legal practice inProvo, Utah, and won election to theUtah State Senate. Sutherland won election to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1900 and to theUnited States Senate in 1905. In Congress, Sutherland supported severalprogressive policies but generally aligned with the party's conservative wing. He won re-election in 1911 but was defeated in the 1916 election byDemocratWilliam H. King.
Sutherland made up part of the "Four Horsemen", a group of conservative justices that often voted to strike downNew Deal legislation. He retired from the Supreme Court in 1938, and was succeeded byStanley Forman Reed. Sutherland wrote the Court's majority opinion in cases such asVillage of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.,Powell v. Alabama,Carter v. Carter Coal Co.,Adkins v. Children's Hospital,Blockburger v. United States, andU.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp..
Sutherland was born inStony Stratford,Buckinghamshire,England, to a Scottish father, Alexander George Sutherland, and an English mother, Frances (née Slater). A recent convert toThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Alexander moved the family to theUtah Territory in the summer of 1863 and initially settled his family inSpringville, Utah but moved toMontana andprospected for a few years before moving his family back to Utah Territory in 1869, where he pursued a number of different occupations.[2] In the 1870s, the Sutherland family left the Church, with George remaining unbaptized.[3]
At the age of 12, the need to help his family financially forced Sutherland to leave school and take a job, first as a clerk in a clothing store and then as an agent of theWells Fargo Company. However, Sutherland aspired to a higher education, and in 1879, he had saved enough to attendBrigham Young Academy. There, he studied underKarl G. Maeser, who proved an important influence in his intellectual development, most notably by introducing Sutherland to the ideas ofHerbert Spencer, which would form an enduring part of Sutherland's philosophy. After graduating in 1881, Sutherland worked for theRio Grande Western Railroad for a little over a year before moving to Michigan to enroll in theUniversity of Michigan Law School, where he was a student ofThomas M. Cooley.[4] Sutherland left school before earning his law degree.
After admission to the Michigan bar, he married Rosamond Lee in 1883, and produced two daughters and a son. Afterwards, Sutherland moved back to Utah Territory, where he joined his father (who had also become a lawyer) in a partnership inProvo. In 1886, they dissolved their partnership and Sutherland formed a new one withSamuel R. Thurman, a future chief justice of theUtah Supreme Court. Their partnership later includedEdgar A. Wedgwood who served asadjutant general of theUtah National Guard.[5] After running unsuccessfully as theLiberal Party candidate for mayor of Provo, Sutherland moved toSalt Lake City in 1893. There, he joined one of the state's leading law firms, and the following year was one of the organizers of theUtah State Bar Association. In 1896, he was elected as aRepublican to the newUtah State Senate, where he served as chairman of the senate's Judiciary Committee and sponsored legislation granting powers ofeminent domain to mining and irrigation companies.[6]
In 1900, Sutherland received theRepublican nomination as the party's candidate for Utah's seat in theUnited States House of Representatives. In the subsequent election, Sutherland narrowly defeated theDemocratic incumbent (and his former law partner),William H. King, by 241 votes out of over 90,000 cast. He went on to serve as a Representative in the57th Congress, where he fought to maintain thetariff on sugar and was active in bothIndian affairs and legislation addressing the irrigation of arid lands.[7]
Sutherland declined to run for a second term and returned to Utah to campaign for election to theUnited States Senate. With the state legislature firmly under Republican control, the contest was an intra-party battle with the incumbent,Thomas Kearns. With the backing of Utah's other senator,Reed Smoot, Sutherland secured the unanimous support of the caucus in January 1905. Sutherland repaid his debt to Smoot in 1907 by speaking on the floor in the Senate in defense of the senior senator during the climax of theSmoot hearings.[8]
Sutherland's tenure in the Senate coincided with theProgressive Era in American politics. He voted for much ofTheodore Roosevelt's legislative agenda, including thePure Food and Drug Act, theHepburn Act, and theFederal Employers Liability Act. He was also "a longstandingwomen’s rights advocate. He introduced theNineteenth Amendment into the Senate... campaigned for the passage of that amendment, helped draft theEqual Rights Amendment, and was a friend and adviser ofAlice Paul of theNational Woman's Party."[9] However, he generally sided with the "Old Guard" of conservatives who battled with their Progressive counterparts within the party duringWilliam Howard Taft's presidency. He was also involved closely with the legal codification of the period and joined Taft in opposing the legislation admittingNew Mexico andArizona into the union because of clauses within their constitutions allowing for therecall of judges.[10]
The election ofWoodrow Wilson and theDemocratic takeover of Congress in 1912 put Sutherland and the other conservatives on the defensive. By now a national figure, Sutherland opposed many of Wilson's legislative proposals and foreign policy measures.
Sutherland's opposition contributed to his defeat in1916, when he faced re-election for the first time under the terms of theSeventeenth Amendment. Once again he faced William H. King, who campaigned on Sutherland's opposition to the president. Following his Senate defeat, he resumed the private practice of law inWashington, D.C., and served as president of theAmerican Bar Association from 1916 to 1917.[11]
On September 5, 1922, Sutherland was nominated by PresidentWarren G. Harding as anassociate justice on theSupreme Court of the United States to succeedJohn Hessin Clarke; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate the same day.[12] Sutherland was sworn into office on October 2, 1922.[1]
Sutherland wrote a decision affirming azoning ordinance inVillage of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., which was widely interpreted to be a general endorsement of the constitutionality of zoning laws.
DuringFranklin Roosevelt's early years in office as president, Sutherland, along withJames Clark McReynolds,Pierce Butler andWillis Van Devanter, was part of the conservative "Four Horsemen," who were instrumental in striking down Roosevelt'sNew Deal legislation. Sutherland was regarded as the leader of this conservative bloc of judges.[13] Privately, Sutherland held Roosevelt in low regard, describing him as an "utter incompetent."[14]
Important decisions authored by Sutherland include the 1932 casePowell v. Alabama, overturning a conviction in theScottsboro Boys Case because the defendant, Ozie Powell, was deprived of his right to counsel, andU.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936), in which Sutherland wrote the majority decision to give the US President wide powers in conducting foreign affairs and later became very influential in widening the executive branch's powers about foreign policy.
InUnited States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), Sutherland authored the unanimous decision, which decided thatIndianSikhs, although they are classified as members of the "Caucasian race," were not white within the meaning of theNaturalization Act of 1790 and so are ineligible for naturalized American citizenship.
In 1937, the Supreme Court began to side with more moderate New Deal policies developed in reaction to previous legal cases, and Sutherland's influence declined.[13] Sutherland retired from the Supreme Court on January 17, 1938, as the balance of power on the Court was shifting away from him.[13]
Following his retirement, Sutherland sat by special designation as a member of theSecond Circuit panel that reviewed the bribery conviction of former Second Circuit Chief JudgeMartin Manton, and authored the court's opinion upholding the conviction.
While vacationing with his wife at a resort inStockbridge, Massachusetts, Sutherland suffered a severeheart attack and died in his sleep some time between 4:00 AM and 9:30 AM on July 18, 1942, his wife by his side. They had celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary just 29 days earlier.[15]
Sutherland was interred atAbbey Mausoleum inArlington County, Virginia. In 1958, his remains were removed and reburied atCedar Hill Cemetery nearSuitland, Maryland.[16]
As an infant, Sutherland had been baptized in theAnglican church,[17] and his religion is often listed asEpiscopalian.[18][19][20] Sutherland was never a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as his parents left the Church in his childhood.[3] However, he maintained loyal friendships with prominent Latter-day Saints, and fondly remembered his time atBrigham Young Academy.[21] Sutherland rejected the Latter-day Saint tradition, specifically "collectivist economic practices," but he had studied the religion at Brigham Young Academy and followed the Latter-day Saint practice of alcohol abstinence.[22] Lawyer and commentatorJay Sekulow wrote that some of Sutherland's views had been influenced by the Latter-day Saints.[23] As of 2021, Sutherland is the last non-LDS Senator from Utah.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromUtah's at-large congressional district 1901–1903 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Utah 1905–1917 Served alongside:Reed Smoot | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Cuban Relations Committee 1909–1911 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Public Buildings Committee 1911–1913 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Justice Department Expenditures Committee 1913–1917 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| First | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromUtah (Class 1) 1916 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1922–1938 | Succeeded by |
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