Charles Evans Hughes

Details

Birth

April 11, 1862 · Glens Falls, New York

Death

August 27, 1948

Law school

columbia university

Prior experience

Various legal and public service prior to appointment

Biography

Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941, having previously served as an Associate Justice from 1910 to 1916. Born in Glens Falls, New York, Hughes graduated from Brown University in 1881 and Columbia Law School in 1884. He established a successful legal practice in New York before gaining national prominence through his investigations of public utilities and insurance companies. Hughes served as Governor of New York from 1907 to 1910, earning a reputation as a progressive reformer. President William Howard Taft appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1910, but Hughes resigned in 1916 to accept the Republican presidential nomination, narrowly losing to Woodrow Wilson. He subsequently served as Secretary of State under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge from 1921 to 1925. President Herbert Hoover nominated Hughes as Chief Justice in 1930, despite significant Senate opposition due to concerns about his corporate legal work during the 1920s. As Chief Justice, Hughes demonstrated a pragmatic judicial philosophy, often serving as a swing vote during the constitutional crisis of the New Deal era. He authored the majority opinion in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935), which struck down key provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act, but later supported New Deal legislation in cases like NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937). Hughes skillfully navigated President Franklin D. Roosevelt's court-packing plan, helping preserve the Court's independence while allowing constitutional adaptation to modern economic realities. His legacy includes maintaining institutional stability during a period of significant constitutional transformation and authoring approximately 300 opinions that balanced federalism concerns with evolving interpretations of federal power.

Notable opinions

• Schenck v. United States
• Near v. Minnesota
• West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish