Supreme Court of the United States

Taft Court
White Court ← → Hughes Court
Chief JusticeWilliam Howard Taft
July 11, 1921 – February 3, 1930 (8 years, 207 days)
Seat	Old Senate Chamber Washington, D.C.
No. ofpositions	9
Taft Court decisions

TheTaft Court refers to theSupreme Court of the United States from 1921 to 1930, whenWilliam Howard Taft served asChief Justice of the United States. Taft succeededEdward Douglass White as Chief Justice after the latter's death, and Taft served as Chief Justice until his resignation, at which pointCharles Evans Hughes was nominated and confirmed as Taft's replacement. Taft was also the nation's 27thpresident (1909–13); he is the only person to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice. Two of the associate justices who served with Taft (Willis Van Devanter andMahlon Pitney) were also appointed by him.

The Taft Court continued theLochner era and largely reflected the conservative trend of the 1920s.^[1] The Taft Court is also notable for being the first court able to exert some control over its own docket, as theJudiciary Act of 1925 instituted the requirement that almost all cases receive a writ ofcertiorari from four justices before appearing before the Supreme Court.^[2]

The Taft Court began in 1921 when PresidentWarren Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft to replace Chief Justice Edward Douglass White, who Taft himself had made Chief Justice in 1910. The Taft Court began with Taft and eight members of the White Court:Joseph McKenna,Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.,William R. Day,Willis Van Devanter,Mahlon Pitney,James Clark McReynolds,Louis Brandeis, andJohn Hessin Clarke. In 1922 and 1923, Harding appointedGeorge Sutherland,Pierce Butler, andEdward Terry Sanford to replace Day, Pitney, and Clarke. In 1925, PresidentCalvin Coolidge appointedHarlan F. Stone to replace the retiring McKenna.

Bar key:

  McKinley appointee  T. Roosevelt appointee  Taft appointee  Wilson appointee  Harding appointee  Coolidge appointee

Presidents during this court includedWarren G. Harding,Calvin Coolidge, andHerbert Hoover. Congresses during this court included67th through the71st United States Congresses.

• Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon (1922): In a decision written by Justice Holmes, the court established the doctrine ofregulatory taking under theTakings Clause.
• Federal Baseball Club v. National League (1922): In a unanimous decision written by Justice Holmes, the court held thatMajor League Baseball operations did not qualify asinterstate commerce and hence that the league was exempt from theSherman Antitrust Act. The suit had been brought by the owner of theBaltimore Terrapins of theFederal League, the last major league to compete with Major League Baseball.
• Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922): In an 8–1 decision delivered by Justice Taft, the court struck down the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law, which Congress had passed to tax companies usingchild labor. The court held that the tax was not a true tax, but rather a regulation on businesses using child labor, and thus a violation of theTenth Amendment which the court held was charged with such regulation.
• Moore v. Dempsey (1923): In a 6-2 decision written by Justice Holmes, the court held that mob interference in a criminal trial violates due process, and that federal courts could protect against due process violations in trials held by state courts. It was the first Supreme Court case in the 20th century that protected the civil rights ofAfrican Americans in theSouth.^[3]
• Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923): In a 5-3 decision written by Justice Sutherland, the court struck down a national minimum wage law for women. The court held that minimum wage laws violatefreedom of contract, a doctrine established inLochner v. New York (1905).Adkins was overruled byWest Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937).
• Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925): In a unanimous decision delivered by Justice McReynolds, the court struck down theOregon Compulsory Education Act, which had required children to attend only public schools; the law included several exceptions, and was mostly targeted atparochial schools. The court held that the law violated due process.
• Gitlow v. New York (1925): In a 7–2 decision authored by Justice Sanford, the court held that theDue Process Clause of theFourteenth Amendment extendedfreedom of speech andfreedom of the press protections of theFirst Amendment to the states. However, the court upheld the conviction of the defendant, socialistBenjamin Gitlow, on the basis that Gitlow's speech represented a danger to the country under thebad tendency test.^[4] This was the first of several cases thatincorporated theBill of Rights against the states.
• Carroll v. United States (1925): In a 7–2 decision authored by Justice Taft, the court created themotor vehicle exception, which allowswarrantless searches of automobiles.
• Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. (1926): In a 6–3 decision written by Justice Sutherland, the court upheld a localzoning measure as a valid use ofpolice power. The court ruled that the local ordinace did not violate theDue Process Clause, as it was not discriminatory and had arational basis.
• Buck v. Bell (1927): In an 8–1 decision written by Justice Holmes, the court upheld theRacial Integrity Act of 1924, a Virginia statute authorizingcompulsory sterilization of theintellectually disabled at some state institutions.
• Lum v. Rice (1927): A unanimous opinion by Taft upheld a Mississippi school district's expulsion of aChinese American student from a whites-only school on the grounds that Mississippi law did not consider Asians to be white, greatly expanding the scope of permissible racial discrimination in American schools untilBrown v. Board of Education outlawed it 27 years later.
• Olmstead v. United States (1928): In a 5–4 decision written by Justice Taft, the court upheld the conviction ofRoy Olmstead and held that wiretapping private telephone conversations does not violate theFourth Amendment or theFifth Amendment. The case was overruled byKatz v. United States (1967).

The Taft Court struck down numerous economic regulations in defense of alaissez-faire economy, but largely avoided striking down laws that affected civil liberties.^[5] The court struck down both federal and state regulations, with the latter often being struck down on basis of thedormant commerce clause.^[6] The court also tended to take the side of businesses over unions, rarely intervened to protect minorities, and generally issued conservative rulings with regard tocriminal procedure.^[7] During the preceding White Court, progressives came close to taking control of the court, but Harding's appointments shored up the conservative wing.^[5] Holmes and Brandeis (and Clarke, before his retirement) formed the progressive wing of the court and were more willing to uphold government regulations. McReynolds, Van Devanter, and the Harding appointees (Taft, Sutherland, Butler, and Sanford) made up the conservative bloc and frequently voted to strike downprogressive legislation such as child labor laws.^[5] Van Devanter, Taft, Sutherland, Butler, and Sanford formed a cohesive quintet that often voted together, while McReynolds was more likely than the others to dissent from the right.^[8] The departures of Pitney and Day left Joseph McKenna as the lone swing justice, though McKenna became more conservative as he neared retirement.^[5] In 1925, PresidentCalvin Coolidge appointed Attorney GeneralHarlan F. Stone to replace McKenna, and Stone surprised many by aligning with Holmes and Brandeis.^[9]

• 1920s in the United States
• United States Supreme Court history by court
• William Howard Taft

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• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata