Grafton Green (August 12, 1872 – January 27, 1947) was an American

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

who served on the

Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of Tennessee. The Supreme Court's three buildings are seated in Nashville, Knoxville, and Jackson, Tennessee. The Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, and four justice ...

from 1910 to 1947, including more than 23 years as chief justice.Justices of the Supreme Court of Tennessee
, Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society Green was born in

Lebanon, Tennessee Lebanon ( ) is the county seat of Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 38,431 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in Middle Tennessee, approximately east of downtown Nashville. Lebanon is part of the Nashville Metro ...

, the son of Nathan Green Jr., who taught law for 63 years at

Cumberland School of Law The Cumberland School of Law is an American Bar Association, ABA-accredited law school at Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1847 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee and is the 11th oldest law sch ...

Cumberland University Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1842. The oldest campus buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896. History 1842–1861 The university was founded by the Cumberl ...

and served as the law school's chancellor.John R. Vile (2003),
Great American judges: an encyclopedia
', Volume 1, page 310. ABC-CLIO. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Green Sr., had been a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court for 20 years. Green earned an LL.B from Cumberland School of Law in 1893, being called to the bar that same year. He operated a law practice in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

until 1910, when he was elected as an associate justice of the

. He was subsequently re-elected in 1918, 1926, 1934, and 1942. Green became the chief justice of Tennessee in 1923, serving until his death. As of 2011, he holds the record as the person who served the longest on

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

's highest court.Jack W. Robinson, Sr.
Tennessee Supreme Court Building: Stately Hall of Justice
, ''The Chronicle: The Newsletter of the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society'', Fall 2010. Page 12. In 1927, Green presided over the

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

of John T. Scopes, who had been

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

of teaching

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

. The court found the law against teaching of evolution to be constitutional, but overturned Scopes' conviction on a technicality.154 Tenn. 105 (1927) Five years later, Green also presided over ''Evans v. McCabe'', 52 S.W. 2d 159 (1932) which held that the state constitution prohibits personal

income taxes An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

on wages, but not on interest-bearing investments. A bust of Green is displayed in the Tennessee Supreme Court Building in Nashville.

References

1872 births 1947 deaths People from Lebanon, Tennessee Chief justices of the Tennessee Supreme Court Tennessee lawyers Cumberland School of Law alumni {{Tennessee-state-judge-stub