William Howard Taft

Details

Birth

September 15, 1857 · Cincinnati, Ohio

Death

March 8, 1930

Law school

cincinnati, university of

Prior experience

Professor

Biography

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) served as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930, becoming the only person in American history to hold both the presidency and the chief justiceship. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a prominent Republican family, Taft graduated from Yale College in 1878 and Cincinnati Law School in 1880. Before his Supreme Court appointment, he served as a federal circuit judge, Solicitor General, Governor-General of the Philippines, Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt, and the 27th President of the United States (1909-1913). Following his presidential defeat in 1912, Taft taught constitutional law at Yale Law School until President Warren G. Harding nominated him as Chief Justice in 1921. As Chief Justice, Taft championed judicial efficiency and administrative reform, successfully advocating for the Judiciary Act of 1925, which granted the Supreme Court greater discretionary jurisdiction through the writ of certiorari. His judicial philosophy emphasized constitutional conservatism, judicial restraint, and protection of property rights. Among his most significant opinions, Taft wrote the majority decision in Myers v. United States (1926), which strengthened presidential removal power over executive officials, and Olmstead v. United States (1928), which narrowly interpreted Fourth Amendment protections against wiretapping. Taft's legacy centers on his transformation of the federal judiciary's administrative structure and his role in establishing the Supreme Court's modern case selection process. He oversaw the planning and construction of the Supreme Court Building, though he died in 1930 before its completion. His tenure marked a period of institutional modernization that fundamentally shaped the Court's operational framework for decades to come.

Notable opinions

• Olmstead v. United States
• Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.