Cleveland Administrations - Cleveland and the Judiciary
Cleveland and the Judiciary
First Term Court
Grover Cleveland appointed two justices to the Supreme Court during his first administration. Lucius Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi had been secretary of the interior before becoming a Supreme Court justice in 1888. President Cleveland also named Melville Fuller of Illinois chief justice in 1888.
During Cleveland's administration the Supreme Court proved to be quite conservative. In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886) the Court ruled that a corporation was a legal person and was thus protected by the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause, which states that no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." The railroad lawyers thus argued that the regulatory legislation being passed by Populist-influenced state legislatures violated their...
[The entire page is 391 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
