Sherman Minton
Sherman "Shay" Minton was an American politician and jurist who served as a U.S. senator from Indiana and later became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; he was a member of the Democratic Party.
After attending college and law school, Minton served as a captain in World War I, following which he launched a legal and political career. In 1930, after multiple failed election attempts, and serving as a regional leader in the American Legion, he became a utility commissioner under the administration of Paul V. McNutt, Governor of Indiana. Four years later, Minton was elected to the United States Senate. During the campaign, he defended New Deal legislation in a series of addresses in which he suggested it was not necessary to uphold the United States Constitution during the Great Depression. Minton's campaign was denounced by his political opponents, and he received more widespread criticism for an address that became known as the "You Cannot Eat the Constitution" speech. As part of the New Deal Coalition, Minton championed President Franklin D. Roosevelt's unsuccessful court packing plans in the Senate and became one of his top Senate allies.
After Minton failed in his 1940 Senate reelection bid, Roosevelt appointed him as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. After Roosevelt's death, President Harry S. Truman, who had developed a close friendship with Minton during their time together in the Senate, nominated him to the Supreme Court. He was confirmed by the Senate on October 4, 1949, by a vote of 48 to 16, 15 Republicans and one Democrat voting against him. He served on the Supreme Court for seven years. An advocate of judicial restraint, Minton was a regular supporter of the majority opinions during his early years on the Court; he became a regular dissenter after President Dwight Eisenhower's appointees altered the court's composition. In 1956, poor health forced Minton to retire, after which he traveled and lectured until his death in 1965. To date, he is the last member of the United States Congress to be named to the Supreme Court.
According to historians, Minton's judicial philosophy was largely a reaction to the relationship between the New Deal senators and the conservative 1930s Court, which ruled much of the New Deal legislation unconstitutional. Minton believed the Supreme Court should be more deferential to the political branches of government, and supported a broad interpretation of the powers of Congress. He generally opposed any effort to rule federal legislation unconstitutional on the principle that the court was overstepping its authority. As a result of his judicial philosophy, he sought to uphold the intent of the political branches of government. Historians note the unusual contrast this created between his role as a partisan liberal Senator and his role as a conservative jurist. When Minton became a Justice, the Senate had become more conservative, leading Minton to uphold the constitutionality and intention of conservative legislation. He often played peacemaker and consensus builder during a period when the Court was riven by feuds. He generally ruled in favor of order over freedom as a result of his broad interpretation of governmental powers. These rulings and their limited impact gave some historians a negative opinion of his judicial record. Other historians consider Minton's strong commitment to his judicial principles laudable. In 1962, the Sherman Minton Bridge in southern Indiana and the Minton–Capehart Federal Building in Indianapolis were named in his honor.
Early life
Family and background
Minton was born on October 20, 1890, to John Evan and Emma Livers Minton, in their Georgetown, Indiana, home. He was the third of the couple's four children, and was nicknamed Shay because of his younger brother's inability to properly pronounce "Sherman". Minton received his basic education in a two-room schoolhouse in Georgetown, which he attended through eighth grade. He was exposed to politics from an early age: when he was five years old, his father took him to hear a speech by William Jennings Bryan, whom Minton admired for the remainder of his life.His father, a railroad laborer, became disabled in 1898 when he suffered heat stroke while working. Afterwards, he took up various jobs, including as a farmer, a butcher, and a grocer; Sherman also began working odd jobs to help his financially unstable family. Soon after John's heat stroke, Minton's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer; a doctor attempted to remove her tumors in April 1900, performing the operation on the Minton's family dinner table, but she died during the procedure. The death was an emotional blow to Minton, and he found it impossible to reconcile with the idea of a loving and just God, leading him to shun organized religion for much of his life. Minton's father married Sarah Montague on December 3, 1901.
Minton enjoyed school but was a mischievous child. In 1904 he was arrested for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk and was taken before a justice of the peace, who fined him one dollar plus court costs. He later credited the incident with sparking his desire to become a lawyer. To accomplish that, he joined his older brother Herbert in Fort Worth, Texas, where he took a job at the Swift & Company meatpacking plant. His father, stepmother, and younger siblings soon joined him there. After saving enough money to continue his education, Minton returned to Georgetown, where he lived with relatives and attended high school.
Education
Minton started at Edwardsville High School, but after that school closed, he attended New Albany High School for the remaining three years. There he participated in the football, baseball, and track teams. He helped start the school's first debate club, the Wranglers, which won several awards. He worked in a local arcade, and during summer vacations returned to Fort Worth to work at the Swift plant. He was briefly expelled from school after committing a prank in February 1908, and the superintendent, Charles Allen Prosser, let Minton return only after he formally apologized before the entire school. Minton began dating Gertrude Gurtz, whom he later married, in his senior year. He graduated high school in 1910.To earn money to attend college, Minton resumed working for Swift & Company in Fort Worth and played baseball semi-professionally. In September 1911, he enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington, where he participated in a combined program that enabled him to complete both his undergraduate and law degrees in only four years. Despite the heavy workload, he played multiple sports, joined the debate team, and participated in the Jackson Club, an organization for Democrats. While at Indiana, he also joined and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. His classmates included such people as future Governor of Indiana Paul V. McNutt and future presidential candidate Wendell L. Willkie, both of whom later had substantial impacts on Minton's political career. Minton's high academic standing entitled him to serve as librarian at the legal college. The position, which paid thirty dollars a month, allowed him to live more comfortably in law school. He graduated first in his class with an LL.B. degree in September 1915.
Minton won a one-year scholarship to take graduate courses at Yale Law School, where he earned a Master of Laws degree cum laude in 1916. At Yale he took a constitutional law seminar with former President and future Chief Justice of the United States William Howard Taft, who is said to have described a paper Minton wrote as one of best ever written at the school. Along with Lewis F. Powell Jr., Minton is one of two United States Supreme Court justices who earned an LL.M. degree. Minton continued to improve his oratory and debate at Yale; he won the Wayland Club prize for extemporaneous public speaking, and helped organize the university's legal aid society.
Legal career and World War I
Minton spent the summer of 1916 earning money as a platform manager on the Chautauqua lecture circuit. In fall 1916, Minton returned to New Albany, where he renewed his relationship with Gurtz and opened a law practice. Soon thereafter, however, the United States entered World War I, and Minton quickly enlisted in the United States Army. He took an officers' training course at Fort Benjamin Harrison in hope of earning a commission, but was not among those chosen to become an officer. After taking a brief leave of absence in August to marry Gurtz, Minton returned to camp and requested to repeat his training course, still hoping to receive a commission; after finishing the training he was commissioned as a captain. The Eighty-Fourth Division, to which Minton belonged, was dispatched to France in July 1918. Minton was then assigned to John J. Pershing's general staff; he served on the Soissons, Verdun, and Belgian fronts. His tasks included scouting roads to ensure safe transport of men and supplies.After the war ended, Minton continued to serve with the Army of Occupation until being discharged in August 1919. While in Paris he studied Roman law, international law, civil law and jurisprudence at the Sorbonne's Faculté de Droit. He was in Versailles when the peace treaty was signed. Returning home after his discharge, Minton met his son, Sherman Anthony, who had been born in February. Two more children, Mary-Anne and John, were born in 1923 and 1925, respectively.
Political career
When Minton returned home, he decided to run for Congress in Indiana's 3rd district instead of immediately resuming his law practice. Despite his war record and his active campaigning, he lost the 1920 Democratic primary to John Ewing by a wide margin. Afterwards, he briefly joined the Indiana law firm of Stonsenburg and Weathers before moving to Miami, Florida, where he joined another firm, Shutts & Bowen, in 1925. In January 1928, he left the Miami practice and returned to Indiana, where he rejoined the Stonsenburg and Weathers firm. In 1930, he again sought the Democratic congressional nomination in the Third District but was again defeated, this time by Eugene B. Crowe, who won by four thousand votes.The following year, Minton became a local commander of the American Legion. The group had a large and active membership in the state at the time, and he used his position to encourage support of the Democratic Party agenda. Paul McNutt was the national commander, and the two men became political allies. When McNutt became governor in 1930, he offered Minton a position at the head of a new utility regulation commission. As commissioner, Minton successfully imposed regulations that reduced state telephone bills by a combined total of $525,000. The cuts received widespread media coverage, and Minton was credited in the reports with the success.