Joseph McKenna (August 10, 1843 – November 21, 1926) was an American politician who served in all three branches of the U.S. federal government as a member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

, as

U.S. Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He is one of seventeen members of the House of Representatives who subsequently served on the Supreme Court (including two Chief Justices).

Biography

Born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, the son of

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...

immigrants, he attended St. Joseph's College and the

Collegiate Institute A collegiate institute is an institution that provides either secondary or post-secondary education, dependent on where the term is used. In Canada, the term is used to describe institutions that provide secondary education, while the word is used ...

Benicia, California Benicia ( , ) is a city in Solano County, California, located on the north bank of the Carquinez Strait in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It served as the List of capitals in the United S ...

. After being admitted to the California bar in 1865, he entered private practice for one year and then became

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

for Solano County and then campaigned for and won a seat in the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...

for two years (1875–1877). He retired after one term and an unsuccessful bid for Speaker.Joseph McKenna at

Supreme Court Historical Society The Supreme Court Historical Society (SCHS) describes itself as "a Washington, D.C.–based private, nonpartisan, not for profit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to preserving and communicating the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, in ...

. After two unsuccessful attempts, McKenna was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

in 1885 and served for four terms. While in Congress, he was a "vehement proponent" of Chinese exclusion. He was appointed to the

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

in 1892 by

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Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a ...

. In 1897 he was appointed the 42nd

Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...

by President

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

, and served in that capacity until 1898. McKenna was nominated by President McKinley on December 16, 1897, as an

associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a Justice (title), justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the J ...

, to succeed

Stephen Johnson Field Stephen Johnson Field (November 4, 1816 – April 9, 1899) was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from May 20, 1863, to December 1, 1897, the second longest tenure of any justice. Prior to this ap ...

. He was confirmed by the Senate on January 21, 1898, by a voice vote. He then took the judicial oath of office on January 26, 1898. Conscious of his limited credentials, McKenna attended

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

for about a month between his nomination and Senate confirmation to improve his legal education before taking his seat on the Court. Although he never developed a consistent legal philosophy, McKenna was the author of a number of important decisions. One of the most notable was his opinion in the case of '' United States v. U.S. Steel Corporation'' (1920) which held that

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

cases would be decided on the "rule of reason" principle—only alleged

monopolistic A monopoly (from Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce a particular thing, a lack of viable sub ...

combinations that are in unreasonable

restraint of trade Restraints of trade is a common law doctrine relating to the enforceability of contractual restrictions on freedom to conduct business. It is a precursor of modern competition law. In an old leading case of '' Mitchel v Reynolds'' (1711) Lord S ...

are illegal. He authored 614 majority opinions, and 146 dissenting opinions during his time on the bench. His passionate rebuttal to the denial of "pecuniary benefit" to a wife whose husband had been killed while working on the railroad was among those which brought a change to the Employer Liability Act. One of his most noteworthy opinions was '' Hipolite Egg Co. v. United States'', 220 U.S. 45 (1911), in which a unanimous Court upheld the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. In '' Hoke v. United States'' (1913), he concurred in upholding the

Mann Act The Mann Act, previously called the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, ; ''codified as amended at'' ). It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann (Illinois politician), James Rob ...

. However, four years later, he dissented from the Court's opinion in '' Caminetti v. United States'' (1917), which held the act applied to private, noncommercial enticements to cross state lines for purposes of a sexual liaison. According to McKenna, the Act regulated only commercial vice, ''i.e.'', "immoralities having a mercenary purpose."Ariens, Michael, Joseph McKenna at
michaelariens.com. McKenna wrote '' Williams v. Mississippi'', upholding the state's racist 1890 Constitution that disenfranchised nearly every African American in the state through poll taxes and literacy tests, while exempting whites through a grandfather clause. While McKenna was generally quite favorable to federal power, he joined the Court's

substantive due process due process is a principle in United States constitutional law that allows courts to establish and protect substantive laws and certain fundamental rights from government interference, even if they are unenumerated elsewhere in the U.S. Consti ...

jurisprudence and voted with the majority in 1905's ''

Lochner v. New York ''Lochner v. New York'', 198 U.S. 45 (1905), was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court holding that a New York (state), New York State statute th ...

'', which struck down a state maximum-hours law for bakery workers. This decision carried broader implications for the scope of federal power, at least until the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

and the 1937 switch-in-time-that-saved-nine ''

West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish ''West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish'', 300 U.S. 379 (1937), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of state minimum wage legislation. The court's decision overturned an earlier holding in ''Adkins v. Child ...

''. (''See'' Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937.) McKenna resigned from the Court in January 1925 at the suggestion of Chief Justice

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

.Appel, JM
Anticipating the Incapacitated Justice
, August 22, 2009. McKenna's ability to perform his duties had been diminished significantly by a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

suffered 10 years earlier, and by the end of his tenure McKenna could not be counted on to write coherent opinions. McKenna was one of 15 Catholic justices (out of the 116 total through the appointment of Justice

Ketanji Brown Jackson Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson (née Brown; ; born September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer and jurist who is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination, was nominated ...

) in the history of the Supreme Court. McKenna married Amanda Borneman in 1869, and the couple had three daughters and one son. McKenna died on November 21, 1926. in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

His remains are interred at the city's Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

.''See also'', Christensen, George A., ''Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited'', ''Journal of Supreme Court History'', Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17 – 41 (19 Feb 2008),

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

Electoral history

References

External links

Department of Justice, Joseph McKenna Attorney General.

.
Official Supreme Court media, Joseph McKenna at the

Oyez project The Oyez Project is an unofficial online multimedia archive website for the Supreme Court of the United States. It was initiated by the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law and now also sponsored by Cornell Law School Le ...

. , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McKenna, Joseph 1843 births 1926 deaths 20th-century American judges American people of Irish descent Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit McKinley administration cabinet members Republican Party members of the California State Assembly Politicians from Philadelphia People from Solano County, California Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from California Columbia Law School alumni Saint Joseph's University alumni Attorneys general of the United States United States federal judges appointed by Benjamin Harrison United States federal judges appointed by William McKinley Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States Catholics from California Catholics from Pennsylvania 19th-century members of the California State Legislature 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives

Biography

Electoral history

See also

References

Further reading

External links