William R. Day

Details

Birth

April 7, 1849 · Ravenna, Ohio

Death

July 9, 1923

Law school

michigan, university of

Prior experience

U.s. court of appeals judge

Biography

William Rufus Day (April 17, 1849 – July 9, 1923) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1903 to 1922. Born in Ravenna, Ohio, Day graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1872 and established a successful law practice in Canton, Ohio, where he became close friends with future President William McKinley. Day served as a judge on the Ohio Court of Common Pleas before McKinley appointed him as Assistant Secretary of State in 1897, and later as Secretary of State in 1898. He played a crucial role in negotiating the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War, though he resigned from the State Department due to health concerns and was subsequently appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 1899. President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Day to the Supreme Court in 1903, where he served for nearly two decades. Day's judicial philosophy reflected a moderate conservative approach, emphasizing constitutional limitations on federal power while supporting individual rights in certain contexts. His most significant opinion came in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), where he authored the majority decision striking down federal child labor laws as exceeding Congress's commerce power, a ruling later overturned in 1941. Day also wrote important decisions regarding Fourth Amendment protections, including Weeks v. United States (1914), which established the federal exclusionary rule prohibiting illegally obtained evidence in criminal trials. Though some of his federalism opinions were eventually reversed, Day's contributions to Fourth Amendment jurisprudence and his role in early twentieth-century constitutional interpretation remain significant aspects of his judicial legacy.

Notable opinions

• Northern Securities Co. v. United States
• Champion v. Ames