Samuel H. Buskirk (January 19, 1820,

New Albany, Indiana New Albany is a city in New Albany Township, Floyd County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River, opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The population was 37,841 as of the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Floyd County. It ...

– April 3, 1879,

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, Indiana) was a lawyer, politician, and justice of the

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana Statehouse. In Dec ...

Biography

Buskirk graduated from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

in 1841. After serving as Monroe County recorder from 1844 to 1845, he began practicing law in 1845. He was the Monroe County prosecuting attorney in 1851. Buskirk served five terms in the Indiana House of Representatives and was Speaker of the House in the 1863 session. He was appointed a director of the Indiana State Prison in 1859. He was elected to the Supreme Court of Indiana in 1870 for a term lasting from January 3, 1871, to January 1, 1877, and was appointed by Governor

Conrad Baker Conrad Baker (February 12, 1817 – April 28, 1885) was an American attorney, military officer, and politician who served as state representative, 15th lieutenant governor, and the 15th governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from 1867 to 1873. B ...

to a vacancy in the court in November 1870. During his time on the Supreme Court he wrote ''Buskirk's Practice'' (1876), a manual of Supreme Court practice. Buskirk wrote the opinion in the 1874 case ''Cory v. Carter'', which upheld the principle of

separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protectio ...

in Indiana schools. It was one of the precedents cited in the United States Supreme Court's 1896

Plessy v. Ferguson ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that ...

decision. Samuel Buskirk's younger brother, George Abraham Buskirk (1829–1874), was also a lawyer; his brother helped him study law. He served as a district judge and as a state representative in Indiana, and was also elected Speaker of the House in 1869. Another younger brother Edward C. Buskirk (1833–1900), was also a lawyer and a Marion County criminal judge. Edward was the (unsuccessful) Democratic candidate for mayor in Indianapolis in 1879.''Greater Indianapolis'', Volume 1, Jacob Piatt Dunn, Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1910, p. 165.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buskirk, Samuel H. 1820 births 1879 deaths Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court Members of the Indiana House of Representatives Indiana University Bloomington alumni People from New Albany, Indiana Speakers of the Indiana House of Representatives 19th-century Indiana state court judges 19th-century members of the Indiana General Assembly