Supreme Court of the United States

Waite Court
Chase Court ← → Fuller Court
Chief JusticeMorrison Waite
March 4, 1874 – March 23, 1888 (14 years, 19 days)
Seat	Old Senate Chamber Washington, D.C.
No. ofpositions	9
Waite Court decisions

TheWaite Court was theSupreme Court of the United States from 1874 to 1888, whenMorrison Waite served as the seventhChief Justice of the United States. Waite succeededSalmon P. Chase as Chief Justice after the latter's death. Waite served as Chief Justice until his death, at which pointMelville Fuller was nominated and confirmed as Waite's successor.

The Waite Court presided over the end of theReconstruction Era, and the start of theGilded Age. It also played an important role during the constitutional crisis that arose following the1876 presidential election, as five of its members served on theElectoral Commission thatCongress created to settle the dispute over who won theElectoral College vote.

During Waite's tenure, the jurisdiction of federalcircuit courts (as against that of theState courts) was expanded by theJurisdiction and Removal Act of 1875, which gave thefederal judiciary full jurisdiction overfederal questions. As a result of the change, caseloads in the federal courts grew considerably.

The Waite court began with the appointment of Morrison Waite by PresidentUlysses S. Grant to succeed Chief Justice Salmon Chase. Grant had previously nominated Attorney GeneralGeorge Henry Williams and former Attorney GeneralCaleb Cushing, but withdrew both nominations after encountering opposition in the Senate. The Waite Court began with eight holdovers from the Chase Court:Nathan Clifford,Noah Haynes Swayne,Samuel Freeman Miller,David Davis,Stephen Johnson Field,William Strong,Joseph P. Bradley, andWard Hunt. Clifford, Miller, Field, Strong, and Bradley served on the 1877 Electoral Commission.

Davis resigned from the court in 1877 to serve in theUnited States Senate, and PresidentRutherford B. Hayes successfully nominatedJohn Marshall Harlan to replace him. In 1880, Hayes successfully nominatedWilliam Burnham Woods to replace the retiring Strong. In 1881, PresidentJames Garfield nominatedStanley Matthews to replace the retiring Swayne. PresidentChester A. Arthur addedHorace Gray andSamuel Blatchford to the court, replacing Clifford and Hunt. Woods died in 1887, and PresidentGrover Cleveland appointedLucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II to the court.

Bar key:

  Buchanan appointee  Lincoln appointee  Grant appointee  Hayes appointee  Garfield appointee  Arthur appointee  Cleveland appointee

Presidents during this court includedUlysses S. Grant,Rutherford B. Hayes,James A. Garfield,Chester A. Arthur, andGrover Cleveland. Congresses during this court included43rd through the50th United States Congresses.

Notable rulings of the Waite Court include:

• United States v. Reese (1875): In a 7–2 decision delivered by Chief Justice Waite, the court held that theFifteenth Amendment does not prevent states from using ostensibly race-neutral limitations on voting rights such aspoll taxes,grandfather clauses, andliteracy tests. The decision played a major role in allowing states toeffectively disenfranchiseAfrican Americans.
• Minor v. Happersett (1875): In a unanimous decision written by Chief Justice Waite, the court held that the Constitution did not grant women the right to vote. The ruling was effectively overturned by the ratification of theNineteenth Amendment in 1920.
• United States v. Cruikshank (1875): In a 5–4 decision^{[citation needed]} delivered by Chief Justice Waite, the court overturned indictments arising from theColfax massacre. The court held that theDue Process Clause and theEqual Protection Clause only apply to state action, and that the Fourteenth Amendment had notincorporated theFirst orSecond amendments to apply to the states. The decision was a major blow to the power of theEnforcement Acts and the federal government's ability to protect the rights ofAfrican-Americans in theSouth. Later decisions, includingGitlow v. New York (1925), would incorporate most of the Bill of Rights to apply to states.
• Reynolds v. United States (1878): In a decision delivered by Chief Justice Waite, the court upheld the conviction ofGeorge Reynolds. Reynolds, a member of theLDS Church, had been convicted ofbigamy under theMorrill Anti-Bigamy Act. The court held that the banning of bigamy did not conflict with theEstablishment Clause.
• Pennoyer v. Neff (1878): In a decision written by Justice Field, the court held that a state can exertpersonal jurisdiction over a defendant if the defendant is served notice while physically present in a state.
• Strauder v. West Virginia (1880): In a 7–2 decision delivered by Justice Strong, the court held that theEqual Protection Clause bans exclusionary policies that lead toall-white juries. The decision overturned the conviction of Taylor Strauder, an African-American convicted of murder in West Virginia by an all-white jury.Strauder was the first time that the Court reversed a state criminal conviction for a violation of aconstitutional provision concerning criminal procedure.^[1]
• Pace v. Alabama (1883): In a unanimous decision delivered by Justice Field, the court upheld Alabama'santi-miscegenation laws.Pace was later overruled byLoving v. Virginia (1967) on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause.
• TheCivil Rights Cases (1883): In an 8–1 decision delivered by Justice Bradley, the court struck down part of theCivil Rights Act of 1875, holding that the Equal Protection Clause and theThirteenth Amendment do not protect against racial discrimination by private actors. The decision has not been overturned, and most future legislation against private discrimination (such as theCivil Rights Act of 1964) was passed on the basis of theCommerce Clause.
• Elk v. Wilkins (1884): In a 7–2 decision delivered by Justice Gray, the court held that theCitizenship Clause does not automatically grant citizenship toNative Americans born onIndian reservations. The case was effectively overruled by the passage of theIndian Citizenship Act in 1924.
• TheRailroad Commission Cases (1886): In a 6-2 decision delivered by Chief Justice Waite, the court upheld state fixation of railroad prices as a permissible exercise ofpolice power.Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Minnesota (1890) later limited the effect of this ruling.
• Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Co. v. Illinois (1886):
• Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. (1886):
• Presser v. Illinois (1886): In a decision delivered by Justice Woods, the court affirmed its decision inCruikshank, saying that the First and Second Amendments do not apply to state governments. The decision overturned the conviction of Herman Presser, a member ofLehr und Wehr Verein, a Chicago-based socialist military organization.
• The Telephone Cases (1888): In a series of court cases related to theinvention of the telephone, the court upheldAlexander Graham Bell's patents against the claims ofWestern Union. The court split, 4–3, on the ruling, and Chief Justice Waite delivered the majority opinion.

The Waite Court confronted constitutional questions arising from theCivil War, Reconstruction, the expansion of the federal government following the Civil War, and the emergence of a national economy linked together by railroads.^[2] The Waite Court issued several major decisions, includingCruikshank, that denied the federal government the power to protect the civil rights of African Americans.^[3] However, historianMichael Les Benedict notes that the civil rights decision were made during the era ofdual federalism, and the Waite Court was sincerely concerned with maintaining the balance of power between the federal government and state governments.^[4] While the Waite Court struck down civil rights laws, it upheld many economic regulations, in contrast with the Fuller Court.^[5]

• Waite Court
• 1880s in the United States
• United States Supreme Court history by court

• Pages using the EasyTimeline extension
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2025