This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on William Strong (judge) is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
|
William Strong
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| In office March 14, 1870 – December 14, 1880 |
|
| Nominated by | Ulysses S. Grant |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Robert Cooper Grier |
| Succeeded by | William Burnham Woods |
|
|
|
| Born | May 6, 1808 Somers, Connecticut |
| Died | August 19, 1895 (aged 87) Lake Minnewassa, New York |
William Strong (May 6, 1808 - August 19, 1895) was an American jurist and politician. He was a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Contents |
Early life
Strong was born in Connecticut and later moved to Pennsylvania. He was the cousin of U.S. Representative Theron Rudd Strong of New York. William Strong attended the Munson Academy in Massachusetts, and later graduated from Yale University before starting his legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania.
House of Representatives
In 1846, Strong was elected to the United States House of Representatives as an abolitionist Democrat. Strong served two terms in the House, and was the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Elections during his second term. He did not seek reelection in 1850, but returned to private practice.
Judicial Service
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Strong was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1857 as a Democrat. Strong switched to the Republican Party soon after taking the bench. He resigned from the court in 1868 to return to a lucrative private practice in Philadelphia.
United States Supreme Court
When Justice Robert C. Grier retired from the U.S. Supreme Court, Strong was suggested as a possible replacement. However, President Ulysses S. Grant was heavily lobbied to nominate former Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Stanton was nominated, and confirmed by the Senate, but he died just four days later without having served on the Court. Grant then nominated Strong, who was confirmed without a recorded vote and was sworn in on March 14, 1870. Justice Strong wrote the opinion for an early equal protection case in Strauder v. West Virgina, 100 U.S. 303 (1879).
1876 Election
Strong was one of five Supreme Court Justices who sat on the Electoral Commission that was convened to resolve the disputed electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election of 1876. Strong voted along with his fellow Republicans, who held the majority on the Commission, to award every disputed vote to Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, thus ensuring his presidency.
Strong served on the Supreme Court until December 14, 1880, when he retired despite still being in good health, partly to set an example to several infirm justices who refused to give up their seats. Strong resumed the practice of law and pursued religious causes until his death, at Lake Minnewassa in Ulster County, New York, on August 19, 1895. He was interred in Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, Pennsylvania. The Historical Society of Berks County has in its collection a few pieces relating to Justice Strong.
Sources
| United States House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Ritter |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 9th congressional district 1847-1850 |
Succeeded by J. Glancy Jones |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Robert Cooper Grier |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States March 14, 1870 – December 14, 1880 |
Succeeded by William Burnham Woods |
| Supreme Court of the United States | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 16 November 2008, at 01:58.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "William Strong (judge)".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.