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Mr. Justice Sutherland, A Man Against the State
George Sutherland was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding and served on the Court from 1922 until 1938. Sutherland's conservative ideology was forged during his early training at the Brigham Young Academy by Karl G. Maeser and later by Judge Thomas M. Cooley at the University of Michigan Law School.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
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November 13, 2015
Despite the role that they have played throughout American history in shaping the laws, economy, and society of the country, Supreme Court justices typically receive only a fraction of the attention from biographers that is given to their counterparts in the other two branches of government. With the exception of just a handful of the most famous or influential, most remain unaccountably obscure, never receiving the degree of analysis their legacies deserve.
Joel Francis Paschal's biography of George Sutherland demonstrates just how beneficial such works can be. In it he traces the justice's intellectual development from his formative years in late 19th century Utah, where he first received exposure to the ideas that later shaped his Supreme Court opinions. Here the critical influence was Karl G. Maser, the Mormon scholar who exposed the young Sutherland to the teachings of Herbert Spencer that formed the basis of the young man's ideological beliefs. This, along with his subsequent legal education, gave Sutherland a strong philosophical grounding for his conservatism, which shaped his approach to issues as a legislator both at the state and federal level. He came to prominence in those years as a defender of a conservatism then facing the challenge of the Progressive reform movement, and his eloquent and reasoned arguments in favor of it soon marked him out as a prospective nominee to the nation's highest court.
Yet it is as a Supreme Court justice that Sutherland made his greatest impact, which Paschal acknowledges by focusing nearly half of the book on his fifteen year tenure on the bench. He adopts an analytical rather than chronological approach, examining how Sutherland's concept of individual liberty and his belief in substantive due process shaped his opinions in a number of areas. Though he dismisses the traditional view of Sutherland as a doctrinaire conservative, Paschal sees his focus on theory as both his strength and his weakness as a justice, becoming so dependent on it as to miss the sociological and economic factors of the cases before him.
Insightful and written in a clear and accessible manner, Paschal's biography is a good account of Sutherland's public career and how it was shaped and driven by a coherent political philosophy. While not entirely uncritical, it definitely is a favorable interpretation of the justice, one which sees him as defending deeply held beliefs against the tides of Progressivism and the New Deal. This is the major flaw in what is otherwise a valuable study of a Supreme Court justice, one which is all the more appreciated because of its rarity.
Joel Francis Paschal's biography of George Sutherland demonstrates just how beneficial such works can be. In it he traces the justice's intellectual development from his formative years in late 19th century Utah, where he first received exposure to the ideas that later shaped his Supreme Court opinions. Here the critical influence was Karl G. Maser, the Mormon scholar who exposed the young Sutherland to the teachings of Herbert Spencer that formed the basis of the young man's ideological beliefs. This, along with his subsequent legal education, gave Sutherland a strong philosophical grounding for his conservatism, which shaped his approach to issues as a legislator both at the state and federal level. He came to prominence in those years as a defender of a conservatism then facing the challenge of the Progressive reform movement, and his eloquent and reasoned arguments in favor of it soon marked him out as a prospective nominee to the nation's highest court.
Yet it is as a Supreme Court justice that Sutherland made his greatest impact, which Paschal acknowledges by focusing nearly half of the book on his fifteen year tenure on the bench. He adopts an analytical rather than chronological approach, examining how Sutherland's concept of individual liberty and his belief in substantive due process shaped his opinions in a number of areas. Though he dismisses the traditional view of Sutherland as a doctrinaire conservative, Paschal sees his focus on theory as both his strength and his weakness as a justice, becoming so dependent on it as to miss the sociological and economic factors of the cases before him.
Insightful and written in a clear and accessible manner, Paschal's biography is a good account of Sutherland's public career and how it was shaped and driven by a coherent political philosophy. While not entirely uncritical, it definitely is a favorable interpretation of the justice, one which sees him as defending deeply held beliefs against the tides of Progressivism and the New Deal. This is the major flaw in what is otherwise a valuable study of a Supreme Court justice, one which is all the more appreciated because of its rarity.
Displaying 1 of 1 review